


Mirrored Lives

by redwolffclaw



Category: Psych
Genre: Alternate Universes, Angst and Humor, F/M, Friendship, Humor, Supernatural Occurance, Switching Places
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-10-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 18:31:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 45,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1398196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redwolffclaw/pseuds/redwolffclaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shawn Spencer and his real life counterpart are about to have the weirdest days of their lives, as their places are switched while shooting a scene for their latest episode.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Free the Man in the Mirror

**Author's Note:**

> I had to move this from Psychfic and I am posting all the chapters I currently have and will update here from now on.
> 
> The bouncing back and forth between worlds can get confusing, so I label where each section is going to be. PSYCH for Psych and REAL for real. Simple right? :)
> 
> Anyone not familiar with the actors who play the characters in Psych, here is a short list of the main ones:
> 
> Shawn Spencer - James Roday  
> Juliet O'Hara - Maggie Lawson  
> Carlton Lassiter - Timothy Omundson  
> Burton "Gus" Guster - Dulé Hill  
> Chief Karen Vick - Kirstin Nelson  
> Henry Spencer - Corbin Bernsen
> 
>  
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I do not own Psych, Steve Franks does. Also, any actions based on real or imaginary people in this story are works of fiction. I may use facts from real life, but all in all this is a work of fiction. Treat it as such.

**Chapter 1- Free the Man in the Mirror**

            **_PSYCH:_**

            Lightning flashed through the Santa Barbara sky followed quickly by a crash of thunder. Two men burst unceremoniously through the doors of the SBPD, soaked to the bone.

            “Will this rain ever stop?” Shawn complained as he shook off his windbreaker, re-soaking his friend Gus all over again.

            Glaring, Gus wiped himself off and flicked as much water as he could back at Shawn. "Let's just get the check so I can go home. I have my route to work on tomorrow. That last case we did put me almost a week behind!"

            Carlton happened to just be coming upstairs and their antics had caught his attention. This time though, it was a welcome intrusion, because it saved the head detective from having to call them in. “You two. With me.” He pointed at them and kept walking. Shrugging in unison, both men trailed after the head detective. “The chief wants you in on this so listen up. We have a victim, Hispanic female, mid to late 30s. We found her in the truck of a car off Elm Street.”

            Shawn nodded, frowning. “Must have been a nightmare.” Once Carlton had given him the customary leer of disapproval, Shawn covertly grinned and raised his fist towards Gus for a bump.

            Gus, less than amused himself, didn’t return it. “A woman died Shawn.” Finally realizing his joke timing was a bit off, Shawn lowered his fist with a pout.

            Carlton was already a few steps ahead of them now, and was still talking as they approached his desk. “Strode was just handing me her toxicology report.” He handed the file to Gus who immediately realized what the results were.

            “This is the same stuff anesthesiologists use to put people under.”

            Shawn looked over his friend’s shoulder. The terminology just looked like gibberish to him. “Gus, please for once could you pretend to not know this I'm only thinking of your coolness factor, which just plunged to a negative.”

            “C’mon son.” Gus quipped before his brow furrowed in confusion. “You know, that stuff’s almost impossible to get unless she was in a hospital. They don’t have any prescriptions for it. Is it what killed her?”

            Carlton shook his head. “She was stabbed multiple times. The sedative could have been to stop her struggle.”

            Juliet walked up a few seconds later, carefully carrying something. She noticed Shawn and Gus, “Great, you guys are here.”

            Shawn’s eyebrows raised and he gave her a small smile. “Hey Jules.”

            She smiled back before composing herself. “Woody found this on the body.” Juliet presented a beaded necklace with a stone pendant that was solid black on the backside and green with gold on the front. “It could be a unique piece. I just got done showing the chief and she wants you to see what you can _sense_.” Juliet stressed the last word and looked at Shawn.

            Ever since finding out about his secret, and forgiving him for it, she kept acting as if he wouldn’t know he needed to pretend to be psychic. Shawn found it cute, but a bit disturbing due to the fact that too much of her nervousness could give him away. “Sure thing Jules. We’ll get right on it.”

            Gus gave him a disapproving glare, "You'll get right on it. I'm going home to get some grub and sleep."

            Shawn nodded and rubbed his head, "I know, you didn't have your nap today... AH!" Gus slapped his hand away and punched him in the ribs. "That was too _hard_!"

            Rolling his eyes, Carlton turned to his partner. “O’Hara, we should head to the hospitals and see if our victim was a patient at any of them.” Carlton hoped they could at least get some kind of ID out of all the running around they’d have to do. Shawn and Gus had the ability to wait on their task, but he and his partner didn't have that luxury. "Let's go."

            "I'll see you later tonight Shawn." Juliet gave her boyfriend a tender look before turning to follow after her partner.

\----------------------------------------

**_REAL:_ **

            "And... CUT!" A curly haired man from the director's chair called. Everyone behind the camera started looking back at the take while the actors took a breather before the next scene.

            As usual, as soon as they cut, Dulé was on his phone, showing something to Tim, who'd wandered back to the group after the take had ended. Tim laughed and began typing on his own phone.

            James smiled reached out and grabbed his girlfriend of seven years, Maggie, before she could get too far away and gave her hand a gentle squeeze, letting her know she did a good job on the scene. "Hey, did you want to go to Joey's later on tonight?"

            Joey's was the restaurant just across from where most of the cast and crew stayed while in Vancouver shooting scenes. They often filmed all the interiors they could at once so they wouldn't have to move around and take up too much time. They often only had a week to shoot each episode, and the shooting schedule was often a tight fit.

            "Sure!" Maggie smiled back. "I'm starved. I'll catch you in a few minutes."

            As Maggie walked off to grab some food, James looked at the necklace in his hand. The costume person must have gone to a swap meet or something to get a weird necklace like that. It was kind of pretty though. He wondered if he should joking ask Andy, who was directing the episode, if he could keep and use it as next season's necklace. It went so well with his eyes. He smirked at the thought, then came up with a better one. A really good idea he needed to run by some people before they shot the next scene.

            "Hey Roday!" His co-star Dulé called to get his attention, he turned and a camera flash practically blinded him. He was half expecting it, the tech savvy black man had been tweeting pictures of the set all day. "Hey, twittersphere..." He heard him mumble.

            Rubbing his eyes, he turned around and saw Tim was just putting away his phone. "You up for going to Joey's tonight?" The tall man asked.

            "Yeah, Maggie is up for it too." James looked around and easily found who he'd been looking for, "I need to go talk to the big guy for a second." By 'big guy' he meant Psych creator Steve Franks. At 6'7" the man was a wall, and not a hard one to lose either.

            Even though Andy was directing, Steve was never far away from the set.

            "Steve!" James greeted as he approached. "I need to shoot something by you."

            "Go ahead." Steve smiled. The man was like a big kid, a little bit of himself was put into Shawn Spencer and it showed whenever he would get giddy over a fun scene, or would play a prank on one of the cast members.

            James held up the necklace he'd been carrying. "When Shawn and Gus are talking about the necklace, I think Shawn would actually put the necklace on and model it. What do you think?"

            "That's great! We can see how it works out." Steve's eyes widened as he got his own idea. "We can have Gus continue the no respect joke!"

            James knew it would go over well. He looked over his shoulder and saw Dulé was getting in position. "Thanks Steve. I'll catch you later." He jogged over to his mark and got ready to shoot the scene.

\-------------------------------

**_PSYCH:_ **

            Shawn lagged behind Gus as they made their way to the station doors. His friend had made damn sure he didn't get distracted by the case before they grabbed the check for the last one. Lord forbid they get it tomorrow.

            Shawn fiddled with the necklace in his hand as he walked, before shrugging and putting it on. "Hey Gus! How do I look! This really matches my eyes." He batted his eyes for effect.

            "You really have no respect for the dead do you Shawn?" Gus chided. "Besides, that's a woman's necklace."

            Shrugging, Shawn kept the necklace on anyway. "I'm going to see what I can dig up on the necklace." If it really was one of a kind that might be a problem. It was a lot easier to track mass produced jewelry at stores. "You sure you don't want to come? I'll put up for some ice cream."

            Gus froze, "Cotton candy flavored?" He asked with a suspicious look.

            "You know that's right buddy."

            Giving in just as they got to the door, Gus sighed, "Fine, but we're making it a large! I haven't eaten since lunch."

            "Gus... it's only been two hours."

            "I don't care!"


	2. See You on the Flip Side

**Chapter 2- See You on the Flipside**

            **_PSYCH:_**

            James smiled as made his way to the station exit. The addition of him putting on the necklace ended up going nicely, and the take had been practically perfect. As they reached the doors, James kept waiting for Andy to yell ‘cut’ but it hadn’t come yet. They also hadn’t stopped the storm effects, so he went with it and opened the door. It was supposed to lead to a curtain, that hid the rest of the set from the cameras. Instead of walking and disappearing behind said curtain, he nearly fell on his face as the floor dropped away to a step he didn’t know was there.

            “Shit!” He flailed before being caught from behind.

            “Walk much Shawn?” The black man quipped and straightened him up.

            James huffed out a relieved breath and chuckled wryly. “Well, that’s going on the blooper reel.” He noticed his co-star giving him a puzzled look. He was about to say something, when he noticed his back was starting to get cold. “What the−?” Reaching his hand to the back of his shirt, he was surprised when it came back wet.

            He quickly spun around and his eyes widened as he realized he was looking out to an eerily familiar parking lot with pink cherry trees, and it was storming.

            Dulé gave him a worried look, “Shawn, what’s wrong? It’s just water.”

            "What?" James didn’t know if he’d heard wrong, “We still rolling?” He moved past him to look into the station set, and noticed…that wasn’t quite a set anymore. The cameras were missing. Yards of electrical cords and equipment was just _gone_. The extras were still there though, oblivious to the “goneness” of the set, and were taking notes and talking to people as if nothing had changed.

Everyone had always told James that he was ironically the least observant person they knew, but he knew he wouldn’t miss someone taking hundreds of pounds of video equipment out of the room in the last thirty seconds. “Oh my God…”

            “Shawn, are you freaking out on me?”

            He scowled, and pointed at the station, “Dulé you didn’t notice that?” By his friend’s blank look, he took it as a no.

Turning in circles, he tried to figure out what was going on. By the warmth, he’d definitely wasn’t in Canada anymore. It had been sunny that morning but it wasn’t supposed to get above 50˚F. Here, despite the rain, it had to be over 70˚F. That alone was weird, but to his left was the parking lot of the Industrial School for Girls in Vancouver, it was the location they used for the outside shots of the Santa Barbara Police Department. However, to his right was the SPBD set, filmed on a sound stage that was easily twenty miles away from the other.

Now, _somehow_ , they were now next to each other, as if… he were actually standing in Psych’s version of Santa Barbara.

            He'd written for enough horror movies to know what was going on. It had to be some kind of dream, but everything about this _felt_ real. The cold rain on his back, the arm holding him steady, currently attached to someone that, if this really was Santa Barbara, wasn't Dulé Hill. He was talking to Burton "Gus" Guster, pharmaceutical salesman, and fictional character. "Oh, this can't be good."

           

\--------------------------------

            **_Real:_**

            “CUT!” Someone shouted just as Shawn opened the door to leave the station. The unexpected noise made him jump and look back quickly, so he didn’t see the black curtain that was suddenly in his path before it was too late. His sneaker slipped on the material and with a surprised shout, he went crashing to the floor, dragging the curtain rod and a hanging light with him. The latter dropped heavily on his back and head.

            “Owwww!” Shawn whined from beneath the curtain.

            “Oh my God!” Shawn heard Gus exclaim and a bunch of hands started digging the items off of him. Once free of the fabric, he could breathe again, but his head hurt. Not to mention he had at least ten people around him brushing him off asking if he was alright.

            "I'm fine, I'm okay.” He grumbled scowling. “Who the hell put a curtain outside the door?"

            Gus raised an eyebrow, "The effects crew, you know that. You sure you're okay?"

            Shawn lowered his hand from the bump on his head. "Effects crew?"

            He never got an answer to his question before Juliet approached and gave him a hug, "James! Are you okay?"

            Shawn's head hurt a bit, but otherwise he was fine and wondering why she'd called him James. Making a joke of it he quipped, "James? That's a new one. Remember we agreed to keep the role playing in the bedroom?"

            Shawn knew the comment should have at least gotten a blush from his girlfriend, and a disgusted look from Gus, but neither came. In fact, everyone around him laughed like he'd just told a very funny joke.

            Gus slapped him on the back and gave him a smile, "Looks like he's okay."

            Stepping back in the station, Shawn finally got to look around and gaped. There were at least three cameras set up in the middle of the SBPD with a bunch of people he didn't recognize milling around. There was a table off to the side full of food that Gus had headed to after making sure he was alright.

            "Jules, what's all this?" He asked looking worried for his sanity because entire buffet table had appeared out of nowhere.

            Juliet looked around, wondering what he was talking about, before her gaze fell on the interviewer in the corner. "Oh! You probably forgot. Buzz Flix is here to do interviews." She pointed over to the corner where someone was currently talking and laughing with Chief Vick "I have to go, I'll catch you later." She touched the sore spot on his head and with a smile, walked off towards Carlton.

            "That's not what I...Jules, wait!" Shawn tried to say, but a man he'd never met led him over to the interviewer. "Hey!" He protested.

            The man leading him smiled, "Sorry but we have to hurry, we're behind schedule and we still have the hospital scene to do. You get your interview done and, we'll do Maggie and Tim's scene while we wait, okay?"

            Shawn scowled, everything was happening so fast, and he had no idea who half of these people ordering him around were. "Hold up there curly locks. Just who do you..."

            A brown haired woman darted forward, "Sorry James, I forgot to grab this." She carefully took the necklace he'd completely forgotten he was wearing off of him and whisked it away.

            "Wait, I need that!"

            "You'll get it back in your next scene, you don't want to wear it for your interview do you?" The man leading him ushered him into a chair in front of one of the cameras,

            "Hey Andy!" Someone called and the man looked towards them.

            "Sorry James, I'll catch you in a bit." He then walked quickly away.

            As he glared after the man, and wondered how screwed he would be for losing evidence, again. A woman walked up to him presenting her hand. Shawn could only assume she was the person doing his interview, but he had no idea what the interview was for. Carlton's sister had done interviews once, maybe it was for something like that. It would explain all the cameras.

            "Um, hi."

            The woman was beaming at him. "Hi, my name is Chelsea, and oh my gosh I am such a fan!"

            Shawn raised an eyebrow and straightened. He knew he was well known around town, but fans? He was flattered. "Really? I guess I am pretty spectacular. Not everyone can be a psychic."

            Chelsea laughed along with a few of the people on the sidelines. "Now, I know you're really busy so I'll make this fast okay?" She pinned a small microphone on his shirt. "Oh, I almost forgot!" The interviewer handed him a pillow and the people watching chuckled even louder, as if there was some kind of inside joke going on.

            Shrugging, Shawn put the pillow behind him, cushioning his back in the uncomfortable chair and leaned forward. He figured the faster they got to the interview, the faster he'd know what it was about.

            The interviewer looked a bit surprised at his action with the pillow, but continued on anyway. "Okay, I am here with James Roday of the hit TV show Psych. How are you today?"

            _James_. There was that name again. Shawn started to wonder if he was being Punked. He admitted to himself that he probably deserved it with everything he’s pulled on everyone else over the years, but he hadn’t seen any tells that people were lying or trying to trick him so he went with it. "I’m alright, but you got the name wrong. It's _Shawn Spencer._ " He emphasized his name, hoping they'd get the point.

            Chelsea smirked, "Okay then, Shawn... What can you tell me about Psych?"

            "Ohhhh!" Shawn finally got it. They were wondering about his business. The middle of a police station was a bit of an odd place for this, and he hoped the Chief wouldn't be upset with him over it, but he really needed the advertisement. "Well Shirley..."

            "Chelsea." She corrected him with a slight frown.

            He shrugged, "I've heard it both ways."

\-----------------------------------

            **_Psych:_**

            Gus didn't understand it. One moment they were talking like normal, discussing food, and the next moment it seemed like Shawn didn't even know where he was. As it was, Shawn was currently bent over, his head close to his knees, hyperventilating. If Gus didn't know better, he'd think that Shawn was having a panic attack.

"Shawn..." Gus tentatively asked leaning his head down next to him.

            "Gimme a minute." Shawn held up a finger and breathed heavily.

            While Gus nervously waited, Juliet and Carlton exited the building right behind them. Carlton’s gaze was surly and both of them standing in their way probably didn’t help his mood any. “I thought I told you to go check out leads on the necklace?”

            Shawn looked up at Carlton and slumped back over again, “Oh God… this can’t be happening. I’ve played Shawn Spencer too much and I’ve finally gone off the deep end.”

            Gus caught Juliet’s eye with a worried look, and she went to him, lifting him up to his feet. “Shawn, are you okay? Did you want to come to the hospital with us?”

            At the mention of the hospital, Shawn perked up. “Hospital? You guys wouldn’t be going there to find out about the body… would you?” To Gus he sounded almost like he didn’t want to know the answer.

            “Come off it Spencer, we just told you three minutes ago.” Carlton moved past them, trying to get out of the rain as fast as possible. “I always knew you had the attention span of a goldfish." He noticed Shawn was still wearing the necklace, "And take that ridiculous thing off, it's evidence and I don't need you losing it."

            Obediently, Shawn took off the necklace and presented it to Carlton, who started at him dumbfounded for a moment storming off shaking his head and mumbling about 'idiots.'

            Shawn lowered his arm with the necklace still tightly gripped in it, and turned to Juliet, "Sorry, I just got winded is all. I'm fine. Really."

            “Winded?" Gus exclaimed, not buying the excuse for a moment. "You walked from the bullpen to the door!” There _had_ to be something else wrong.

            Shawn seemed to think for a moment, looking back and forth between him and Juliet before a smiling fairly convincingly. "Oh, c'mon! Can't you guys take a joke... I really had you going didn't I?"

            Juliet looked less than amused and Gus interrupted the tense moment, "We'll check out some stores and get back to you if we find anything okay?"

            She nodded before casting one last frown at Shawn for the bad humor, following her partner across the parking lot. Gus saw Shawn's smile falter, and he let out a heavy breath as he watched her go.

            "I don't believe you." Gus stated and pointed his finger at Shawn's chest. "Something happened Shawn, if you don't want to tell me... fine, but don't think I won't find out." He turned and headed for the Blueberry, the rain was already beginning to soak through his windbreaker and he didn't want to stand outside arguing anymore.

            He climbed in and started the car, Shawn climbed in beside him a moment later and they pulled out of the SBPD parking lot. Gus kept glancing at Shawn, who was staring out the window with wide eyes, muttering to himself. They were pulling into the ice cream shop when Gus had finally had enough. "Shawn, you're acting about ten kinds of crazy right now, you know that right?"

            "Speaking of crazy, suddenly ending up inside a television show and not knowing how, now that would be crazy. Right?" Shawn chuckled humorlessly and he started breathing heavily again.

            "What are you talking about Shawn?"

            "... Nothing..." Shawn's eyes turned shifty and he turned to stare out the window again, hugging his folded up jacket tightly to his stomach.

            It had to have been the most unconvincing 'Nothing' to ever come out of Shawn's mouth.

            As they entered the ice cream parlor, Gus figured getting Shawn's mind on the case would shake him out of whatever had gotten into him. "What do you think about the necklace? Are we going to be able to find out where she bought it? It sounds like a long shot to me."

            Shawn pursed his lips and stared at the ice cream thoughtfully, but Gus had a feeling he was thinking about something besides the ice cream. "I think it'll be easier to figure out than you think, Gus."

            Gus thought that was cryptic, even by Shawn's standards, he rolled his eyes and picked out his ice cream. Shawn picked out his own flavor and before Gus could dig out his wallet, he was putting a fifty in the server's hand and waiting for his change. The ice cream Gus had just gotten almost ended up on the floor.

            Shawn _paid_ for something. That only happened when Gus was sick, or another one of his girlfriends dumped him, which wasn't all that often. His friend wasn't exactly insensitive or greedy, just inconsiderate sometimes and the generous action was way out of character.

            Apparently Shawn had seen the look on his face and knew he'd done something wrong. "Uh, Jules gave me some money earlier."

            Gus grabbed his treat and turned away to hide his expression. He was beginning to think there was more than just something wrong. Juliet knew better than to give Shawn money. She gave him the money _for_ Shawn because the last time Shawn had gotten more than a few bucks at a time, they had to spend an entire afternoon cleaning the chocolate up from the giant banana split Shawn had tried to put together with a hundred bananas and a can of Hershey's syrup. Their new carpet still had giant brown spots they were trying to get out.

            A half hour of awkward silences later, they were in their first stop of the day. It was a fairly high end jewelry chain and their most promising lead.

            They were immediately greeted as they entered. "Welcome to Randolph's. Is there anything we can help you with today?"

            After a long pause, Shawn seemed to snap out of it and took charge. "Hello, my name is Shawn Spencer. I'm a psychic working for the SBPD."

            Gus smiled. It seemed all Shawn needed was something in his stomach and he was back to normal. He waited to see what name Shawn would come up for him. He'd long ago gotten used to them, and even started having fun going along with them, testing himself to be just as quick on the draw as Shawn was.

            "This is my partner Burton Guster." Shawn stopped and winced, as if he knew how much he'd screwed up, "Uh, also known as Pennywise, the Tap Dancing Clown."

            It was a smooth enough recovery, but for Gus, the damage was done. That slip up was the last straw. Whoever this man was, he looked like Shawn, talked like Shawn and acted a bit like Shawn, but now Gus had no doubt in his mind that this man, _wasn't_ Shawn...


	3. Who Are You?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I laughed myself silly writing this one and it has to be my favorite chapter so far.

**Chapter 3- Who Are You?**

**_REAL:_ **

            Tim ascended the stairs of the set after shooting the coroner's scene with Kurt Fuller and Maggie. The latter had to head out to LA almost immediately for a guest spot on another show, so they'd acted the shit out of it and had taken only two takes to get the shot. He had to admit, Kurt was a genius when it came to playing Woody. He often had to bite his tongue when the older man said his lines.

            Once on the top of the stairs, he and Maggie saw that there was quite a big crowd around the area that had been set aside for their interviews. Steve Franks was standing there with a huge grin on his face, watching from the back so his tall frame didn't block anyone's view.

            "What's going on Steve?" Tim asked curiously, easily craning his neck to get a look at the subject of everyone's attention.

            "James did the entire interview in character as Shawn. It's funny as hell."

            "Really?" Tim was surprised to say the least. James had always been fairly timid during interviews. Timid, but passionate about the show. Sure enough, he heard his friend as he concluded the interview.

            "So, what's next for Psych?" The interviewer asked. Tim looked at Maggie and comically rolled his eyes, making her laugh. That was _always_ the last question, and the press _always_ expected them to give away everything about the next season. Sometimes it was really hard not to though. They were always so excited for everyone to see what they'd been working on.

            "Well April," James started.

            " _Chelsea_ _!_ "

            Tim snorted, getting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference even if the interviewer didn't. His eyes narrowed as he noticed something was missing. James didn't have a pillow. He thought for a moment that they hadn't given him one, but it took him a second to see that he had it supporting his back. _Wow, he must really be in character._

            James put a finger to his lips, looking like he was in deep thought. "Well, Gus and I are thinking about starting an online psychic help center, open twenty-four hours a day. He'll watch it twenty, I'll watch it three, with an hour for lunch. It'll be great."

            Smiling, the reporter turned towards the camera. "There you have it! Straight from, _Shawn Spencer's_ mouth. Don't forget to watch Psych on USA Network." She paused as the camera was turned off and everyone in the area started clapping for James' performance. He seemed to be drinking in the attention with unusual fervor, even doing a bow.

            "Wow, James seems to be in a good mood today." Maggie turned to Tim and smiled as she watched.

            Tim nodded, "Yeah, seems that way. Hey, I'm gonna give my girls a call. I'll catch you later tonight at Joey's okay?" Their shooting together was done for the day, and he'd promised his family that he'd call them today.

            "Alright, catch you later." Maggie headed off in the direction of Andy, who had called her over.

            He was just taking out his phone when he heard a voice call, "Lassie!" Instinctively, he turned to see James, squeezing through the throng of people, heading in his direction. "Hey man, you seen Jules around anywhere?"

            Tim's eyebrows rose at the use of her character's name, but he passed if off as James just messing around. "Maggie's talking to Andy right now." He pointed over his shoulder.

            James' brow furrowed, "Who?" Tim was about to reply when James' eyes seemed to catch on something. It was one of the crew's PSYCH coffee cups. "Oh!" He exclaimed and bounded over to pick it up. "When did this come out? I'd think Gus would put the Psych logo on something a little less cool."

            He turned the cup around in his hands as if it wasn't the millionth time he'd seen one. James owned one for Pete's sake. "Um..." Tim was at a loss for words, but then something clicked. James had to be playing a joke. Lord knows they'd played enough of them on each other and he felt silly for not even thinking about that. James rushed off before he could call him on it though, heading straight for Dulé.

            "Dude! It must be Psych appreciation day or something, look!" James presented the cup, like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "When did you have this done? All that "I have to go to work" stuff this morning was just to distract me while you guys set this up, wasn't it. I'll have to admit, a flash mob interview is pretty original, but it's a bit 2011 isn't it?"

            Dulé's eyes widened a bit as James ranted at him, before Tim figured he'd obviously come to the same conclusion he had. It was a joke. He laughed and waved him off, trying to get things serious. "Heh, good one James. Now, on our next scene..."

            James face got an upset look on it. "Okay, now the "James" joke is going a bit too far buddy. What is really going on around here, and why are you talking so weird!?"

            Tim started to head over, as Dulé looked at his friend, obviously confused with the outburst. "What are you talking about? Are you okay?"

            James tsked, "Man, fine. Be that way. I need some air." He walked past Dulé and with the curtain gone from the door, had no trouble getting out.

            Standing next to Dulé with the same confused expression, Tim asked, "What's with the Daniel Day Lewis routine? You think that light hit him on the head harder than we thought?"

            "Nah, he's just stressed with his movie coming out and all..."

            Their conversation, was broken up by a loud and extremely girlish scream coming from outside. The two men looked at each other for a moment before rushing outside, wondering what had happened now.

\-----------------------------------

**_PSYCH:_ **

            They were on the road again. The first jewelry shop they had tried had been a dead end. James knew it would be a dead end. Hell, he _knew_ who the damn killer was because he helped write the episode. He still wasn't sure what exactly happened, or how long he was stuck here, so he'd decided after leaving the station to just go along for the ride until he figured it out.

            After the jewelry shop however, he seemed to be getting the cold shoulder from Gus. He'd tried to start up a conversation, but the pharmaceutical salesman stayed silent and staring forward at the road. He wore the expression that Dulé had perfected by channeling his Jamaican grandmother. It was definitely Gus' 'I'm not talking to you' face. So obviously, something was wrong.

            "Gus, where are we going next?" Still nothing. James was starting to get nervous, mostly because this wasn't in the script. Looking out the window, he realized they were on a very deserted dirt road that led into a field. "What the... Where are you going?" Silent as ever, Gus continued driving.

            Once they hit the field, Gus stopped the car suddenly, jerking James forward in his seat. He slammed the shifter into park and stared at him. James almost withered under Gus' gaze. It was a quiet rage that James had never expected the timid man to have.

            " _Shawn_ tell me something." James didn't like the way Gus said that name.

            "Yeah−sure buddy. Anything."

            "What color was the tie of the man we talked to at the jewelry store?"

            Oh. Crap. James had no damn idea what color the tie was. He didn't even remember the guy was _wearing_ a tie. He had to stall. "Gus, we're in the middle of an investigation and you're asking me what color someone's tie is? C'mon son!" That sounded convincing even to James, and he saw a flicker of doubt in Gus' steely resolve.

            "No Shawn. You need to tell me what color that tie was." Gus seemed almost desperate for the answer.

            James really tried to remember, but he just couldn't. Taking a guess he stated, "Uh, blue?"

            Gus' face fell back to neutral and he quickly got out of the vehicle and started digging in the back seat. James got out and went around to see what he was doing. "Gus what are you...AH!" He barely managed to dodge a very large pharmaceutical case coming at his head.

            Gus swung again before James could recover and he got hit square in the stomach. He fell to the ground hard on his back, groaning in pain. "Who the hell are you and what have you done with Shawn!" Gus yelled, holding the case above his head, ready to bring it down on James.

            Trying to get air back in his lungs, James gasped, "Wait! I can explain!"

            "Why do you look like Shawn? Is this some kind of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers?" James was still trying to regain the ability to breathe, but Gus took his silence as an affirmative. His face fell and he almost sobbed. "Oh my God! It is isn't it! SHAWN! Shawn if you can hear me in there! You gotta fight! Stay with me you hear!"

            _Really?_ James thought angrily. "Damn it would you cut it out and let me say something!" He gasped out. Gus stepped back enough for him to get up, but still kept the case in attack position. "Ah, God... that thing _does_ hurt."

            "You have ten seconds!" Gus threatened.

            "Alright! Alright..." James put an arm out and his other one on his chest. "Technically, I _am_ Shawn... but not."

            Gus gave him an incredulous look. "That doesn't make me feel any better about you being a body snatcher." He tried to get a look at the side of James' head. "Are you a slug like in Animorphs, or a parasite?"

            "I'm not a body snatcher! I'm an actor!" James couldn't believe those words had actually come out of his mouth, but they seemed to take the wind out of Gus' sails and the case was lowered slightly. "I don't know how it happened, but I ended up here while shooting a scene."

            "A scene for _what_ exactly?"

            James licked his lips, "The television show Psych. I play Shawn Spencer, fake psychic detective."

            Gus was silent, seemingly searching his face for any sign of deception. James knew man had grown up around Shawn and had been there for Henry's trainings, so he had to had picked up on some tells. It's part of what made him such a good salesman.

            "So you're saying," Gus summarized skeptically, "That you are an actor, who plays Shawn in a TV show." James nodded. "And _somehow_ you ended up _in_ the TV show? You actually expect me to believe that!?"

            "You were seriously under the assumption that I was a slug body snatcher!"

            "So you admit to being a slug!"

            "NO!"

            They both glared angrily at each other. James knew his story would be a hard sell, but Gus was probably the most superstitious of the group and most apt to believe him. If he didn't, James was completely screwed and wouldn't have any help to get home. Gus flinched as he reached into his pocket, but relaxed when he saw he was just grabbing for his wallet. James tossed it to Gus for proof.

            As Gus dug through it and checked his ID, James tried to reason with him. "Look, I know you're pissed, but I don't want to be here and _you_ don't want me to be here. How about we agree to disagree and see what we can do to get me home and get Shawn back?"

            Gus' face went neutral again as he pulled out a picture of him and Maggie. "What the hell is this?"

            Blushing, James explained, "Her name is Maggie. She's been my girlfriend for seven years. She plays Juliet."

            Gus stared at the picture for a moment before putting it away and throwing the wallet back at him. "Fine Jim, but if you're here... where is Shawn?"

            James winced, he hated being called Jim. "It's _James_ , and I would guess he would be in my place in the real world." He ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head at the absurdness of the situation.

            Gus suddenly pushed him and pointed a finger in his nose. "This _is_ the real world! I have no idea what your game is, but as far as I'm concerned, you kidnapped my best friend!"

            James should have known Gus would be this upset and protective. Finding out your life is a TV show is probably worse than finding out you were unceremoniously dumped into one. Gus was a good guy, he was probably just really scared. He tried to calm him down, "Listen, Gus. I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot okay? If Shawn is in the real..." James paused at Gus' glare. "If Shawn is back where _I'm from_ , he's gonna be okay. Freaked out, but okay. My friends are a great group and I'm sure they'll take care of him."

            Still holding his wallet, he reached in and grabbed out a photo of him, Tim, Maggie, Dulé, Corbin, and Kirstin with their arm's around each other. He and Tim were sporting their hiatus beards and it was one of his favorite photos. "Look." He handed the picture to Gus, watching his face for any sign of recognition.

            Gus' breath hitched as he looked at the picture, he looked back and forth between James and the photo a few times. "Oh my God. This is you!? Shawn would _never_ grow a beard. He says it makes his face too itchy." He handed the picture back with a look of wonder. "How is this even possible?"

            "I wish I knew buddy." James said before he caught himself. "Sorry, habit."

            "It's alright,"

            "So, will you help me figure this out?" James asked.

            With a sigh, Gus nodded. "Yeah. I can't believe this is happening. It's like something out of the twilight zone."

            Suddenly, James' pocket started ringing. "What the?" He pulled out the prop green I-Phone with the Psych logo.

            Gus looked at it as well, "Why do you have Shawn's phone?"

            "It was a prop." The thing didn't even have an SD card in it, but now it was ringing loudly and flashing a name, **_DAD_**. "Crap." James looked at the phone worried. If Gus figured out he wasn't Shawn in the first hour, Henry would probably know in the first ten minutes. James knew he'd have to avoid him at all costs, or the results would be disastrous and an angry Henry Spencer was a million times worse than an angry Gus.

\------------------------

**_REAL:_ **

            Shawn screamed, loud and piercing. He wasn't proud of it but his world was crumbling and damnit he didn't know what else to do. Santa Barbara was gone! Replaced by a very large parking lot and what looked like warehouses. The song 'Big Yellow Taxi' started inadvertently playing in his head. More specifically the part where they " _Paved paradise, and put in a parking lot._ " He knew it would take more than an hour to do that though. It's like he was transported to a different place, but that was _impossible._ Everyone else was there, so they must have been transported too.

            He put his hands to his head, trying to remember anything that could have happened between the time he'd last seen Santa Barbara, and now. He'd gone in, talked to Carlton, talked to Juliet and gotten the necklace. He'd then followed Gus and got their check. He put the necklace on and walked into that damn curtain... After that, everyone had started acting weird, calling him James except during the interview. He remembered the woman's surprised tone, and the way she'd said his name. Almost as if she'd been humoring him. Then he remember the cup, the cup that had his business logo on it.

            He hadn't noticed before, but there were other things scattered around with the logo as well. Chairs, little foam pop can koozies. He cocked his head, his eyes still closed, had he actually seen a Gus _bobblehead?_

            Then there was everyone calling him James. James Roday to be specific. There was a chair in the corner with that name on it, so he figured it had to be a real person. Shawn opened his eyes and berated himself for not noticing this earlier. He'd been distracted by the interview and talking about his business. His dad was going to have a field day with this one, if his dad were even here... wherever _here_ was.

            "JAMES!" He heard Gus and Carlton yell, coming out the door he'd just exited.

            "Are you okay?" Carlton asked, with more concern for his well being than Shawn had ever seen. He didn't know what was going on, but the others didn't seem to be worried that Santa Barbara had completely disappeared.

            Shawn was freaked out. _Beyond_ freaked out, but he'd always felt it safer to blend in and play along. "Yeah, I just had to let off some steam. Didn't mean to scare you."

            Both of them let out relieved breaths. "Damn Roday you had us going for a while there." Gus socked him in the arm and went back inside shaking his head. Carlton however had stayed outside, and was giving him a weird look.

            "What's going on James? You seem off."

            Waving a hand at him, trying to play off his earlier behavior, Shawn scoffed. "Don't be silly, I'm perfectly fine. Great even."

            "Okay then." Carlton still didn't seem convinced. "I need to call my kids, I'll catch you later. Let me know if you need to talk."

            Shawn put on his biggest smile. "Sure. I'll catch you later man."

            As soon as Carlton, or whoever it was, left. Shawn sagged against the wall. It was worse than he'd thought. They looked like his friends, but they couldn't be. Their mannerisms were off, and Carlton having kids, most of all offering to _talk_ to him. That just wasn't possible.

            One thing was for sure, if he was going to blend in until he found out what was going on, he'd have to figure out who this 'James Roday' was, and fast.


	4. The Truth is Stranger Than Parallel Universes

**Chapter 4- Truth is Stranger than Parallel Universes**

            **_PSYCH:_**

            Gus covertly glanced at the man next to him as they drove to their latest destination, a crime scene they were called to just in the nick of time. Gus doubted James wanted to have dinner at Henry Spencer's house any more than he did at that point, so both were pretty relieved to have an out land in their laps.

            According to Juliet, who'd ended up calling his phone because James' was busy, they were at the hospital when a call about a murder came in. The body had been found in a dumpster, bearing the same injuries as the woman who'd been brought in that morning. When Gus had told James about it, he didn't seem all that surprised. He had the sneaking suspicion that the other man was hiding something. Gus licked his lips nervously, he had so many questions he wanted to ask, but James had been quiet since he'd revealed who he really was.

            Shawn was quiet, sometimes, but only when he went into one of his memory flashbacks, or when he was seriously freaking out about something. James seemed to be a stark contrast. His quiet was more like a serene silence that Gus wasn't used to. He could tell this guy's personality was like a well; it was so deep you couldn't see the bottom of it. Shawn's was more like a mud puddle; It was so clouded by the crap swirling around beneath the surface that you could never quite see how deep it actually was until you fell in it.

            "Uh, James?" Gus asked, finally working up the nerve to say something.

            James looked up, "Hmm?"

            "If you're really an actor, what have you been in?" Gus figured he might as well get to know the dude if he was going to be hanging with him for a while.

            James paused for a moment, considering the question. "Well, I do a lot of theater, even have my own company "Red Dog Squadron", but I've done a few movies and TV series too."

            That got Gus' attention. "Oh! Which ones?"

            "I was in the TV series Miss Match."

            "Never heard of it."

            "The movie Repli-Kate?"

            "Nope."

            James pursed his lips a bit before snapping his fingers as if he'd finally thought of a good one, "Dukes of Hazzard?"

            Gus grinned, "Now that one I've seen." His grin fell a bit when he remembered he'd gotten it by bootleg. "So, who did you play?" He said quickly, before the "vault of secrets" accidentally blurted that out. "One of the extras?"

            "What? No man, I was the racer. The one Bo and Duke were going up against. Billy Prickett." James explained.

            "That role was played by Matthew McConaughey." Gus narrowed his eyes, getting very suspicious again. If the guy really wasn't an actor who'd suddenly switched dimensions or something, he could be sitting by someone who was a few apples short of a bushel.

            "That can't be." James said indignantly.

            "Oh? And why not?" Gus demanded as they pulled up to a stop light and he was able to face him.

            James rolled his eyes. "Well it's obvious, because that roll never called for taking your shirt off."

            Gus stared at James for a few seconds, before both of them burst out laughing. He almost forgot for a moment that this man wasn't Shawn.

            He figured he'd test another theory while he was at it since he'd gotten James to be so chatty. If James played Shawn, who played him? "So, this other dude from where you're from that looks like me..."

            "Dulé Hill."

            Gus nodded, "Yeah him! What did he play in?"

            "He was on the show West Wing for a long time. He played the president's aide, Charlie Young."

            "You sure it was Charlie Young?" James nodded and Gus scoffed. "I've never missed an episode, and I know for sure that Deon Richmond played Charlie."

            James all of a sudden started snickering, then the snickering turned into full on roaring laughter. Gus had no idea why, until he thought about it and clenched his teeth in annoyance before shouting. "I'm NOT BUD!" James' laughter only got louder.

            Gus frowned and stared forward as the light turned green. James' laughter died down quickly and when Gus glanced back at him his sympathetic crier's instinct was on red alert. The guy honestly looked really upset and lost. He had to think of something to distract him, at least until they got to the crime scene. "Um, do you think we should be figuring out how to get you back home?"

            "Yeah, we really should." James nodded and sat up straighter in the seat, "It's just not sinking in man. I keep feeling like I'm just minutes away from waking up on the set, with some sort of 'weird dream' story to tell." James chuckled wryly. "I'm _inside_ the 'Psychverse.' I have a thousand opportunities to see what it is like here, to have fun, to be care free... and all I want to do is go home."

            Gus pursed his lips, "Then there's Shawn."

            "What about him?" James asked with a raised eyebrow.

            "You're seriously asking that?" Gus scoffed, "This is _Shawn_ we're talking about. Can you imagine what he's gonna do when he finds out where he is? I hope your credit card has a low max."

            James' eyes widened in horror. "Oh my God..."

            Gus cursed his big mouth. "Dude, you can't worry about that right now. Just, " Gus thought fast before James had even more of a nervous breakdown, "...worry about getting through this crime scene. You think you can act like Shawn long enough for us to fool Lassie and Juliet so we can get back to figuring out how and why you're here?"

            James rubbed his nose and sighed. "Yeah... you're right. I'll figure out something. I just need to plan things out a bit."

            _Plan things_? _This guy really isn't anything like Shawn._ Gus thought as he pulled up to the crime scene.

            Police cars were scattered about the area and crime scene tape was stretched across the alley where the dumpster sat. It looked like the cops hadn't removed it yet, and were still gathering evidence.

            Juliet looked back at them as they approached and Gus already noticed that James was walking a bit too stiffly, avoiding looking at the dumpster, that had an arm currently hanging out of it. It earned the actor an elbow in the ribs. "Ow! What was that for?!"

            "You're going to blow your cover."

            "I'm trying! It's not easy you know!" James retorted in a fierce whisper.

            "C'mon son!" Gus hissed back.

            " _You_ c'mon son!"

            Juliet must have realized they were bickering and she pinched the bridge of her nose before holding her hands out in a stop gesture. "Guys! Would you stop? We're at a crime scene." They both looked a bit ashamed as they followed her to the dumpster.

            Carlton took that time to walk up, "What took you two so long? Did you hit every drive through food joint between here and Goleta?" He gave them a wide sneering grin.

            James looked at him and shot back, "Sorry Lassie, we would have brought you something, but they didn't have any crow for you to eat when I solve this case first."

            Gus' mouth dropped open. _Damn, he_ is _good._

            Carlton growled and moved forward a few steps, but was held back by his partner. "Carlton. Stay." He stopped but gave James a glare that could wither roses.

            Juliet continued, remaining professional despite the guy's antics. "We just got an ID off of the victim before you showed up. 'Marcus Moray.' He's the husband of the woman we found earlier. We got her name from the hospital just before being called here. 'Jasmine Moray.' They ran a local higher end consignment shop."

            "What about the necklace then?" Gus asked with a frown. "We don't really need to find where it goes anymore do we? I mean, if they own a consignment shop, it's pretty much a given it's from there."

            Juliet sighed. "I don't see why you should have to. Gus is probably right about it being something in their inventory."

            "Wait," James glanced at Gus and put a finger to his head. "I'm sensing... that if Jasmine had the necklace, she may have been trying to meet with someone over it, and it could be the reason she and her husband were taken out."

            Carlton snapped his fingers and pointed at James, "We have to figure out if it was the customer she was meeting with, or the owner, but how?"

            "They should have records for everything in the store, and the names and addresses of the people they are selling stuff for. My aunt used to run a consignment shop and that's what she did."

            James gave him a puzzled look before addressing the issue again. "We'll check out the shop while you guys see if Woody can find anything."

            "It's not your job to order us around Spencer!" Carlton spat out, but paused, trying to come up with something different but failing miserably. "O'Hara, let's go see what Strode can find." He mumbled and walked away.

            Juliet watched her partner go and moved closer to James. Too close for Gus' liking. "So, did you want to go have dinner tonight after we're done for the day? You've been wanting to go to that new Chinese place forever."  

            James smiled as she put a hand on his chest, but caught Gus' eye as he frowned and gave him his best 'I will kill you' look.

            "Hey, uh... rain check Jules." James took her hand and moved it off him. "I really want to get this case out of the way, ya know?"

            Juliet gave him a scrutinizing gaze before Gus jumped in to save the day. "We really should get to checking out that store." He grabbed James' arm and dragged him away before Juliet could argue. "Catch you later."

            Gus pushed James all the way to the Blueberry, despite the other man's protests. "What?" "Ow!" "Stop it!" "What are you doing?"

            "What are _you_ doing!? That's _Shawn's_ girlfriend. Not yours." Gus poked James' chest.

            James swiped his hand away. "I know that, it's just... I miss Mags."

            Taking a deep breath, Gus went out of overprotective mode. He could understand the confusion James was feeling. Hell, it took a lot of reminding not to call James Shawn.

            "So, back there when you were talking about your Aunt's consignment shop..." James trailed off.

            Wondering where this was going, Gus shrugged, "Yeah. I went there a couple times as a kid, so?"

            "I've never heard that. I don't think it's ever even been in a script that you had an aunt, much less one that owned a consignment store."

            Gus curled his lip. "What _is it_ with you? I'm not a puppet that walks around saying lines from a script. I'm a real person. Sure, you may know stuff about me, what my favorite foods are, things I've said, but here's a newsflash for you: We don't stop living just because you stop filming." He ranted, and ended the discussion by getting in the car.

            It took a couple minutes, but eventually James joined him. It took another couple of minutes for James to speak, "I'm sorry. I'll try not to say that kind of stuff anymore, okay?"

            For some reason, just like with Shawn, he couldn't stay mad at James. Gus' anger deflated and he turned to face him, "Okay dude. As long as you keep the TV show stuff out of it. I think we'll get through this." He paused and smirked at the actor. "You did good back there by the way. Did you see Lassie's face?"

            James smiled, "Yeah. I figured that would get him. I also figured something else out back there." Gus' eyebrows raised as he waited for James to continue. "The necklace. In the scri... er, what I was working on back home, the last thing I did before getting dumped here was put it on." Gus opened his mouth, about to gripe at him for not trying to put it on again but James stopped him, "I know what you're gonna say. I've already tried wearing it again before getting in the car. Nothing happened. Maybe, if we find the person who owned it, we can find out more about it."

            "Sounds like a plan." Gus nodded and started the car. "That or we can hope that Shawn figures out something from your side."

            "You know that's right." James quipped with a wide grin.

            "Hey!" Gus frowned. "That's my line."

\-------------------------------

            **_REAL:_**

            Tim stared, dumbfounded. He honestly didn't know what to think at this point. James had been acting very strange since his knock on the head, but this was taking the cake...

            He had noticed something was up after he'd gotten out of his gray detective's uniform and back into his dark gray polo and jeans. (He'd also gotten the grease out of his hair and it looked nicely ruffled, just how he liked it.) As he came out of the changing room, he'd seen that James was still in his outfit for the episode and they had stopped shooting at least twenty minutes ago, so he ended up following him around a bit to see what he was up to. He knew better than to ignore James when he was sneaking around. He'd been pranked too many times.

            James seemed to dig through almost everything he came in contact with, not to mention glancing at scripts, papers, and listening in on conversations. He mumbled to himself a lot, and seemed overly nervous. Finally Tim followed him to the break room, and he looked around the corner to see if the coast was clear, as if he was trying to avoid running into anyone.

            It wasn't all that strange when James stepped away for a bit, but coupled with everything else, it was odd behavior even for that. If James wanted to be alone, he'd just say so and everyone would back off. He didn't need to sneak around like a paranoid weirdo.

            Reaching out a hand, Tim tapped James on the shoulder and the man let out a shriek of surprise. Flinching back, Tim felt bad when James spun around clutching his chest and breathing hard. "Dude, don't DO that!"

            "You better get changed." Tim warned, "Maggie is waiting for you upstairs. We're about to head out to Joey's... what are you doing in here?"

            For a moment, James looked like a deer in headlights, but seemed to recover quickly, "Just, ya know... hanging out. It's been kind of crowded and I wanted some time to... uh, clear my head."

            Tim raised an eyebrow, "What's up with you today? You've barely talked to anyone, and now you're slinking around the set, what gives?"

            "Just having one of those days." James mumbled, looking at the floor.

            Sighing but sympathetic, Tim clapped him on the back good naturedly. "Get dressed. Maybe a night out will help."

            James eyes widened and he nodded mechanically, staring at Tim like he'd just grown a second head. "Uh, sure buddy... I'll just..." James backed up pointing over his shoulder, "Get dressed..."

            "The dressing rooms are that way." Tim pointed the opposite direction.

            "Yeah. I knew that." James laughed and hurried down the hall.

            "Okayyy..." Tim huffed out a breath and headed back upstairs. James was definitely off today.

            Maggie met him in the main "bull pen" area of the set, she was already dressed to leave, and had her and James' red, bull mastiff named François, affectionately called Franc, on a leash beside her. "Did you find him?"

            "Yeah." Tim pointed over his shoulder, while giving Franc a scratch. "He's seems a bit down. I think the stress from his movie is really getting to him." Maggie frowned and looked concerned. "That or he's finally gone of the deep end and may come to work tomorrow with his underwear on his head." He 'oofed' out a sharp breath when Maggie smacked him in the chest.

            Still giving him a faux grumpy look, Maggie stated, "At any rate, Franc will sure be happy to see him tonight. He hasn't been home much lately." Franc was practically attached to James' hip when they were together, and Maggie had brought him as a surprise. "I'll have to leave him in the car at Joey's but he'll be fine for a bit. Won't you?" Maggie was making kissy noises at the dog when James emerged from the dressing room, in a T-Shirt with his jacket over his arm and stocking hat hanging out of it.

            James immediately noticed Franc and went into cute doggy mode. "OH MY GOD! He's so cute!" Then proceeded to smush his face into Franc's and make kissy noises. Tim shook his head and wondered how a grown man could love dogs that much, completely blocking out that he acted the same way around his own dog.

            After rolling around a bit, getting thoroughly slobbered on, James sat up and asked, "Who's is he?" Looking between the two of them expectantly.

            Tim, open mouthed, looked at Maggie who was smiling, figuring he had to be joking. "I dunno. It's been so long since you've seen him I guess you don't recognize him." She also didn't catch James covertly checking out the dog's nametag.

            "Yeah Francie," James baby-talked, "It seems like it's been forever..."

            Tim cleared his throat. "Everyone is probably waiting for us. We should get going." Maggie nodded and James bounced up from the floor ready to leave with her. "Say, Maggie... Since your car isn't all that big and you have Franc, is it okay if I take James to Joey's? It's right across from the hotel, and I have some scene stuff to talk to him about anyway." He definitely wanted to talk to James, but it didn't have _anything_ to do about filming scenes.

            Giving him a puzzled look, Maggie shrugged. "Sure, if it's okay with James."

            James was about to open his mouth, but Tim already had his arm around his shoulder. "Sure it's okay with him. We'll catch you in a bit." He grinned at her widely and, with James in tow, left the set.

            Once they were outside, James shrugged him off and looked over at him with a suspicious glare. "Okay, what's with the grabby-ness?"

            Tim squeezed the bridge of his nose. "James, I know you don't want to tell me that something's wrong, but something's _wrong._ " He stressed the last word, and let it hang in the air. "Did you hit your head harder than you want us to know? I can take you to the hospital." He could have sworn he'd seen a flicker of fear in James' eyes before the all too familiar cocky smile was back.

            "I don't know what you mean..."

            "Bull." Tim said simply and crossed his arms.

            James suddenly looked him in the eyes. Tim realized that James hadn't actually looked him in the eyes all day, and now that he had, Tim could see that his friend was scared. Terrified even. James had just been hiding it extremely well. It had to be a head injury, because it almost seemed like James had no idea who anyone was.

            Testing a theory, Tim asked, "Hey Jim," James looked at him expectantly and didn't even correct the hated use of the short version of his name. "What's my name?" Tim figured he would start out with easy questions, then work his way up to harder ones.

            James' eyes flew back and forth, as he tried to come up with the answer to something he'd known for almost a decade. Finally, in an unsure tone he asked, "Corbin?"

            "OKAY! Let's go to the hospital now." Tim started leading his concussed co-star to the car so he could take him to the hospital.

            "Damn it! It was either that or Tim." James cursed and tried to shrug him off again.

            Tim held on, "You had to _guess_ my name! I'm taking you to get some help."

            "I'd rather go with Jul−MAGGIE... I'd rather go with Maggie."

            "Too bad, you're going with me, James."

            "I'm not..." James started.

            "Are too." Tim got to the passenger's side and waited for James to get into the car voluntarilly.

            "No! I mean I'm not−" James paused, a wild look came to his eyes, as if he wanted to make a run for it.

            Tim had never known James to be this difficult, ever. It was almost like dealing with his daughters when they were young enough to scream and cry when he and his wife went to the store and didn't get them candy. Like a spoiled child.

            Finally reaching the end of his rope, Tim growled, "Not _what_ James? You're not _what!?_ "

            "I'm not JAMES!"

            The two men stared at each other for a long moment. Tim's stomach had felt like it dropped to his feet. "What...?"

            James grabbed his hair in frustration and grit his teeth, when he let go, it was almost standing on end, making him look like even more of a crazy person, "Damn it I can't deal with this crap! You're Lassie, but not Lassie... Jules is still smokin' hot but is named Maggie. By process of elimination, if he's not named Corbin, Gus is something called a Dulé, which sounds a lot more like some kind of delicious dessert, rather than a name." Tim started to covertly look around for some kind of help. They were friends, sure, but this was so much above his pay grade...

            James, or as he stated... "Not James" kept ranting. "What the hell am I supposed to do. I have no fricken _clue_ who you people are, or why I'm supposed to be this _James_." He did air quotes with his fingers. "I'm stuck in some kind of world where everyone and everything I do know is written in a script for a TV show, and the only person that I have to talk to is..." He dramatically pointed at Tim, "You! Who's all of a sudden shown more emotion in _five minutes_ than I've seen in the eight years we've known each other." Finally done, he was breathing heavily and quickly.

            "Okay..." Tim tried to placate him. "If your name isn't James, then what do I call you?" He already had an idea what was coming, but he was hoping it wasn't. If it did, his day just got a lot more complicated than he'd wanted it to be. _Please just be a joke._ He prayed.

            "Shawn. Spencer."

            Tim let his head drop, "Of course it is.. _._ "


	5. Going Off Script

**Chapter 5- Going off Script**

            **_PSYCH:_**

            James stared out the window most of the way to the shop while playing with the necklace in his pant's pocket. The rain had stopped but the dark clouds had stayed and as the sun set, it left the landscape dull and muted. He absently thought that he really needed to change. The mud on his clothes from falling when he was attacked by Gus had dried, despite his best efforts of getting it off before getting in the car, and the feeling was uncomfortable to say the least.

            Neither man had really talked since leaving the crime scene. They had started out chatting, but both got quiet after the first few minutes. Things were just too weird between them to really have more than a superficial conversation. He had to really try to see Gus as Gus and not as Dulé acting as Gus. James imagined it was the same with the other man. It was too complicated… and he missed Maggie.

            The worst thing about the situation is that he wished he’d gone through the episode script more carefully. They were on one of their first scenes when he’d been zapped to what he kept thinking of as “Psych-ville,” and he hadn’t had much creative input on this script. He kept having déjà vu moments, but couldn’t remember much from his complete read through the month before.

            “I think this is the place.”

            James looked up at Gus’ statement and saw a very stylish building that seemed to be made to look old fashioned, but in a tasteful way. It was a cherry wood frame with stained glass windows. “Nice.” They'd been planning on doing location shots later that week, when the guest stars came in, but in James' opinion Andy had picked out a great building.

            Gus parked the Blueberry outside the second hand store, and looked up at the sign seeing the business was aptly named “Second Time Around.”

            “Huh,” Gus raised an eyebrow. “Fitting.”

            James smiled. He thought so too, but he stopped short of telling Gus that he’d been the one to help figure out a name for it, one of the few things he’d added.

            Something, however, was really nagging at the back of his mind. Something happened here. It was important…

            “You coming?”

            James realized he hadn’t left the car yet and was still staring at the sign. “Sure man. Coming.”

            The windows in the shop were dark. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s home.” Gus commented peering through the glass, squinting.

            “Of _course_ they aren’t home!” James said exasperatedly. “Both the owners are lying in the morgue right now.”

            Gus glared at him, "Most people have employees _James_." He spat out and headed to the door. He tentatively turned it and surprisingly, it opened. His glaring expression turned nervous. “Don’t people usually lock their businesses?”

            “An open door is an invitation, right?” James shrugged, knowing it was definitely something that Shawn would say.

            Raising a finger, Gus pointed it at James menacingly before pushing the door the rest of the way open. Both men gaped at what they saw.

            The place was absolutely ransacked.

            Clothes and knick knacks were strewn about in careless heaps while display cases were either jimmied open or smashed in. They could barely get past the door without walking over clothes and shattered objects. "Wow, whoever this was must have been pretty desperate. Look at this place!" He kicked a broken and now unidentifiable figurine out of the way.         

            As Gus tried to wade through the mess, James' instincts screamed to get the hell out of there. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. _You're just jittery, figure out this stupid necklace and you can go home._

            "Do you think the murderer did this? I mean, the door _was_ unlocked..."

            "That's too much of a coincidence man, and from what I know about this place, there are no coincidences." James pointed out and looked at the display cases and glanced behind the counter and groaned. "It's going to be impossible to find any records in this place now."

            Gus came up beside him, "What?" Then he too noticed the paperwork, ripped up and scattered. "Oh dude."

            James rubbed his face with his hands. This whole situation just became a lot harder. He may even have to stay here for days... DAYS! When he opened his eyes again, they both heard a creaking noise and looked around the store. Everything was still. Gus shrugged and went back to looking through the rubble for anything useful.

            However, James had frozen. It had just come to him what was going to happen next. It had been one of his favorite parts in the script, and he couldn't believe he hadn't remembered earlier...

            "LOOK OUT!" He yelled and tackled Gus to the ground behind the desk as bullets started to fly above their heads, destroying more of the cases and spraying them with shards of glass.

            They both screamed as sharp shards rained down on them and footsteps ran for the front door, slamming it back shut as they escaped. It was over a minute before either of them dared to move and James realized he still had his arms wrapped tightly around Gus, protecting him. He slowly let go, untangling his limbs carefully to avoid getting cut on the glass now coating their bodies. "You okay?"

            Gus didn't move, he made a few pathetic whimpering noises and stared straight ahead.

            "What?" James followed his gaze and his eyes landed on a pale hand sticking out of the mess of paperwork behind the counter. "Well, it looks like they did have employees..." James hadn't meant to say that out loud, but his brain hadn't really been working at that moment. He was staring at an actual dead body. It wasn't a prop, or an actor painted to look like a corpse, but a _real_ dead body.

            James pushed himself to his feet as his stomach flipped over and threatened to expel everything he'd eaten that day, which was pretty much just the ice cream. He turned away and took deep gasping breaths. He never liked being sick, but there were times as an actor that you had to suck it up and push through it. This was one of those times.

            He jumped when he felt a hand on his back but realized it had to just be Gus. "You okay?"

            Nodding, James attempted to stand up straight. "I'll be okay. I've just never seen a dead body before."

            "You get used to it." Gus said in a surprisingly tender voice, "Shawn always used humor to get through that stuff, he's good at hiding how much it really affects him."

            "You didn't sound used to it."

            "I don't always almost land on dead bodies on a regular basis either." Gus defended. "We should call Lassie and Juliet."

            James agreed. They might be able to get the guy before he got too far away, or at the very least, get some fingerprints from the items the murderer had thrown around. He frowned, looking at the mess of papers they'd have to look through. He bent over and looked at some of the top slips as Gus called in the body, purposefully not looking anywhere near the corpse.

            "James." Gus said quietly as he hung up his phone, disturbing him from his search.

            "Huh?"

            Gus' face had a pinched look, as if he was trying not to get emotional again. "You saved my life." He stated simply.

            "Yeah. I did didn't I?" James smirked up at him. "Shawn would have done it." In fact, he was sure in the script, Shawn actually _had_ done it. Now that it happened, he thought he remembered that Shawn had seen the subtle shadow in the doorway after it creaked and had shoved Gus to the ground.

            "How did you know that was going to happen?"

            James winced. He knew Gus didn't like any allusions that his life was a TV program. "I sorta read it somewhere."

            "Read it somewhere..." James could see the gears working in Gus brain, and the realization of what he'd been talking about. "A SCRIPT!? You seriously knew that was going to happen because of a script didn't you!" James nodded sadly. "Oh my God! You know who the killer is don't you! We could have gotten him any time and you didn't say anything! I could have died!"

            "NO! It isn't like that. I can't remember half the stuff I've read about it, we hadn't gotten that far." Gus looked at him skeptically. "Granted I could probably tell you what he looks like, but I can't remember his name or anything."

            Gus huffed out a frustrated breath, "Fine, but you better tell the police everything you know about him. I won't have you holding out on me when people are dying." He pointed to the body and James felt his stomach almost go again.

            "Fine fine fine! I won't hold out on you anymore." James turned his head away and wondered what the universal repercussions would be if he told them what was going to happen, then he realized something, and started to laugh.

            "What the hell is so funny?"

            "I don't know why I didn't think of it before. With the bits that I know, I can keep up the psychic stuff. Shawn probably would have seen something to give them the killer's description too. It weirdly works out." James chuckled more at the irony.

            "You've got problems." Gus stated, but smiled too.

            They were still grinning when both Carlton and Juliet showed up with Woody and his body bag, ready to process the newest crime scene.

\------------------------------------------

            **_REAL:_**

            Shawn hadn't meant to blurt everything out, least of all to Carlton's doppelganger. Once he'd realized he wasn't in Kansas anymore, and exactly what this place _was_ , he freaked out. Internally, of course, but Shawn guessed all he needed was someone asking what was wrong for him to explode.

            During his digging, he'd spotted a few scripts and promotional items with the Psych logo, put two and two together, carried the five and divided by forty two and came up with the horrible conclusion that everything he'd ever known, was some kind of TV program. Worst day ever.

            He was honestly surprised how similar everyone looked to his friends. As in exactly similar. Shawn was under the assumption that if you were going to be an evil, or in Carlton's case; caring and friendly, twin... they should at least have mustaches to differentiate them. Then he had to stop himself from picturing Jules with a mustache. Laughing in the middle of a mental break down would only make him look more crazy.

            As it was, this Tim guy was definitely looking at him like he'd lost a few brain cells from his little bump on the head.

            "Okay then... Shawn. You mind telling me how you got here then?" Shawn rolled his eyes, he was obviously being humored. The problem was though, he didn't know enough about this James guy to prove that he wasn't him.

            "Um... I'm not exactly sure about that." Shawn admitted. He put his finger to his head and once again remembered what he'd done right before hitting the curtain....

            _Shawn fiddled with the necklace in his hand as he walked, before shrugging and putting it on. "Hey Gus! How do I look! This really matches my eyes."_

"The necklace!" He blurted out. "That damn necklace must have had some kind of Ju-Ju. We need to find it." Shawn turned to go back into the set where it had been taken away from him.

            Tim caught his arm. "James, listen to yourself. If this is a joke, it's gone to far. You're seriously freaking me out." Shawn was about to protest being held back but Tim continued, "Besides, they probably have that necklace locked up somewhere. You'll get it when we shoot tomorrow."

            "You mean I have to be here a whole DAY?" Shawn sagged dramatically onto the car. "This can't get any worse."

            Still talking to him like he was an unstable loon, Tim tried another tactic. "How about this, let's go to Joey's, everyone will be there. Maybe you just need to de-stress."

            Deciding his best chance was to stick with someone he knew, he didn't have any other choice but to go with him. "Fine, but I zapped over without any cash, so you're buying."

            Tim didn't say anything, but motioned to the car and made sure he got in before going around to the driver's side. "Could you do me a favor and _not_ mention the whole being Shawn Spencer thing to anyone at the bar... I really don't want to have my ass kicked for not taking you to the hospital."

            "So, why aren't you taking me to the hospital then?" Shawn asked with a raised eyebrow, "You believe me?"

            " _No._ " Tim said quickly. "It's just... you really _have_ been acting weird, but I can't bring myself to believe you are who you say you are. I just can't. But, I've known you for years James, and you aren't the type to lie about stuff like this."

            "Unless I really was Shawn."

            "Stop _saying_ that!" Tim shouted.

            "Well, how the hell am I supposed to prove it to you then?" Shawn threw his hands up in frustration. This conversation kept going in circles.

            Tim pursed his lips, "I'm reserving judgment. I'm not saying I believe you... but we'll see."

            "Fair enough." Shawn slumped in the seat.

            Joey's wasn't far away at all, about fifteen minutes and they were there. It was a smallish restaurant with a lot of glass and a nice patio across from a hotel. By the conversation they'd had earlier, Shawn figured that was the one they were staying in. "Not too shabby, I share a room with Maggie right?"

            Tim looked at him sharply and Shawn wiggled his eyebrows. "Let's just go inside."

            They got out of the car and Shawn froze as he saw his dad approaching them. He gave Tim a look of pure terror, and stiffened when the elder man's arm circled his shoulder. "Hey guys. We've been waiting for you. Maggie just showed up with Franc."

            "Hey...man..." Shawn tried to act natural, but it was almost impossible when one of the most uptight and killjoy-ish people you've ever known, is suddenly acting like your best buddy. He wasn't even wearing one of his hideous shirts, just a normal blue polo.

            "C'mon, let's get some warm food. I'm really starting to get sick of sandwiches and fruit."

            Shawn snorted. At least his appetite seemed to be the same.

            Tim impassively watched the exchange, then joined them as they entered. They were greeted by the staff there as if they'd known them for years. _They probably_ have _known them for years._ "Tim! James! The usual?"

            Shawn wasn't paying attention and just nodded passively, he was currently taking in all the information he could about the place. Twelve hats, eight waitresses, two bar tenders and thirty patrons, most of which were people he remembered seeing at the set.

            Maggie waved them over to a big table with Dulé, and the really tall guy from the set. "Corbin! I didn't know you were coming tonight."

            Shawn looked around and realized Maggie was talking to what was supposed to be his dad. _So that's Corbin._

            "Yeah, I decided to stay in town. Steve here said he wanted to do some interior house shots with James tomorrow."

            _God, I switch worlds and I still have to spend time with my dad._ Shawn thought dejectedly as he sat down next to Maggie. All the grumpy thoughts left his mind when she reached under the table and grasped his hand. He stared at her hand, then turned to look at her, wondering if it would be cheating if she was technically the same person...

            "So _Shawn_..." Tim whispered to him with a wide smirk, "Could you tell me how many hats are in the restaurant?" He obviously didn't want the others to hear, but it seemed to Shawn like Carlton's twin was starting to think everything had been a joke all along.

            Shawn leaned closer to Tim and whispered back, "Twelve. It will be thirteen in a second once the guy in the fedora comes through the door." Shawn took a drink of his water and waited for the information to sink in.

            At first, Tim scoffed and looked at the door. Sure enough, a man with a fedora was just coming in the door. "Wha..."

            Shawn ignored him. He was getting sick of proving himself. If he was stuck here, he'd at least enjoy himself, and get some juicy info while he was at it, starting with James' girlfriend. "Maggie, Maggster, Mags... how long have we been together now? It seems like forever."

            Maggie looked at him with a smirk, "Eight _interesting_ years, you know that." She chided playfully.

            Shawn smiled, "Yeah, I just like hearing you say it." Inside, Shawn was raging that James had five more years with his dream girl than he had with Juliet. _So not fair._

            "You've been a bit off today, are you feeling alright?" She looked at him concerned.

            Shawn choked on the water he was drinking and coughed a few times and Maggie rubbed his back till he was done. More and more people were noticing he was acting weird. It was becoming obvious that James was nothing like him. _Probably a nerd or something._ "I'm fine. Been a long day."

            "Okay, just checking." Maggie kissed him chastely on the cheek and Shawn thought, _Jules is going to kill me._

            Once their food came, Shawn tried to focus on eating and not on parallel universes, the food was pretty good. He'd almost started to relax, but that plan was blown to bits when a couple teenage girls approached the table. "Hey, could we get your autograph?"

            Smiles abounded at the table and each one took turns signing the girls' napkin, that being the only thing they had on them at the time. They graciously thanked each one, but when they got to him they each blushed bright red. "James Roday, we love all your episodes!"

            "Really?" Shawn was starting to think he could get used to fame. People seemed to be really nice to him.

            "Yeah! The Yin and Yang trilogy was the best!" Shawn gripped the pen he was using to sign the napkin so hard it made cracking noises and he quickly finished signing so he wouldn't break the damn thing.

            Shawn handed the napkin back and looked up at the girls, doing his best to remain outwardly calm. "I'm sorry, _which_ episodes exactly?"

            "The one where Yang almost blew up your mom, that was so awesome!"

            The other girl nodded, "Mary's death scene was so sad! You are a great actor!"

            "The part where Abby broke up with you."

            "And when Gus was almost killed!"

            His fears confirmed, Shawn got up quickly from the table. "Nice meeting you... I'll be right back."

            Everyone watched with questioning looks as he rose from the table and hurried out the door. He couldn't deal with this right now. It was one thing to realize your life may be a TV show, but another to realize that the most horrible moments in your entire life were used for entertainment. He felt sick.

            Once he was outside, he stood in the doorway and rubbed his upper lip. It had taken a long time, and a lot of Juliet, to get over that last bout with Yin. Then with Yang's death that year... it was too much. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Tim there.

            "Go away."

            "No." Tim stubbornly stayed where he was. "James... he would never walk out on fans like that. Especially when they were talking about his favorite episodes. The ones that he directed himself."

            "Well then this James is a sadistic bastard with no heart." Shawn's voice broke, so he stopped talking. He was a man damn it. Guys didn't cry in front of other guys. Unless you were Gus.

            Tim came in front of him, "James isn't sadistic. He put his heart and soul into those episodes and they were his favorite because it showed a different side of you. It showed that underneath the childish facade, there is the heart of a real detective." He poked Shawn right over his heart.

            Okay, stroking his ego wasn't the worst thing Tim could have done, but Shawn was still very bitter about the whole experience. He then realized that Tim had been referring to James as "James" and not "you."

            "Wait a minute. Are you telling me that you finally believe me?" Shawn looked at Tim hopefully. God, if he could get someone to believe him, it would make things so much easier. He really missed Gus at that moment. Gus would believe him in a second.

            Tim gave him a scrutinizing look, "If I say yes, will you drop the dummy act and be straight with me?"

            "Look, I know there's a lot of sexual tension between us but I've always been strai−" Shawn stopped when he saw a glare that was almost distinctively Lassitarian. Sarcasm was his coping mechanism, but if this guy knew him enough to call him on his BS, he'd really have to play it straight. "Okay, fine. If you agree to help me get back home, I'll keep the theatrics to a minimum."

            Tim extended his hand to shake, but Shawn grabbed it and curled it into a ball before bumping it with his fist. "That's how I roll."


	6. Behind the Scenes

**Chapter 6- Behind the Scenes**

          **_PSYCH:_**

            "Well, the body is fresh. I can tell you that." Woody stated the obvious and took another lick of his popsicle. He then used it to point at the pooled blood around the dead man's head, which had been hidden underneath the ransacked files along with the body. "It looks like his skull was smashed in with something large and round."

            Juliet and Carlton, who had been standing nearby James and Gus watching Woody work, started to look around for the missing murder weapon.

            When they arrived, Juliet had immediately run over to make sure James was okay. Gus had curled his lip and give James the 'stink eye' until he'd moved away from her and back to his side. He'd be damned if some imposter, cool as he was, tried to get 'up in there' with his best friend's girlfriend.

            It seemed James hadn't been listening to Woody at all. He just kept staring at the dead man on the floor. Gus elbowed him to get his attention away from the body, ignoring the grunt of pain at the action. "Dude, this is where you're supposed to find the evidence _before_ the police."

            " _I know!_ " James hissed back at him. "I can't remember..." His eyes lit up and he raised his hand. "I have a question!"

            Everyone turned to look at James.

            "If he had a gun, why didn't he shoot this guy? Why bash him on the head? None of the other victims were shot either."

            Carlton looked contemplative for a moment. "Because the gun belonged to the store." Carlton walked over to where the body was, "He must have come in, grabbed something from the counter, and smacked the guy in the head. He probably found the gun when he was digging through everything."

            Juliet's eyes brightened, "You must have walked in before he could finish searching, so maybe he didn't find what he was looking for."

            "Which means he's probably going to try again."

            Gus didn't like the way James said that. "How do we know he didn't just realize he couldn't find it, and just... gave up or something."

            Carlton raised a lip. "I know these scum sucking lowlifes. Whoever this is, he..." Juliet cleared her throat. "... or she, is not going to give up that easily. Hopefully we can get some prints off of this stuff... goddamn it Strode! You're getting that crap all over the evidence!"

            As Carlton when to go hit Woody upside the head with his own popcicle, Juliet grabbed Shawn's hand. "After we wrap this up the chief said we could go home. How bout a couple bags of popcorn and a movie?"

            _Aw hell no!_ Before James could say anything, Gus covered his mouth. "I'm sorry Juliet. We have a couple of _leads_ we need to check up on at the office." Gus hoped the other man would get the hint.

            James rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Yeah, sorry I was going to tell you."

            It wasn't hard to see the disappointment in Juliet's face. It looked like she'd really been looking forward to a relaxing night. "Alright. I need to get up early tomorrow, so I'll see you at the station then."

            She walked off and James pursed his lips. "She doesn't look happy."

            Shrugging, Gus replied, "She's used to it. Shawn and I have a lot of movie marathons at Psych when we're supposed to be working. Most of the time it's because he solved the case already, and wants to get paid for a few extra days."

            "Yeah but look," James pointed at Juliet as she walked up and got in between the game of keep away that had ensued after Carlton had tried to take Woody's treat from him. "She's a great girl, why wouldn't he want to spend time with her?"

            "Don't ask me! You're supposed to be Shawn, remember?" He griped as they walked out of the store.

            James looked down frowning. "I guess man." Gus was about to go around the Blueberry to the driver's side, when he noticed James' eyes narrow and he made Shawn's 'It's a clue' face. His mouth opened and he pointed at Gus' foot. "Gus! Look at the paper stuck to your shoe!"

            He hadn't noticed anything stuck to his shoe, but when he took it off, he saw why James was so excited. "Marsha Kingsley... green stone necklace. Suggested retail price..." Gus made a face, "Ten dollars!? Why the hell would a store like this have a necklace worth ten dollars?" He also thought it was kind of creepy that out of the hundreds of receipts and papers in that store, the one they needed just happened to stick to his shoe.

            James reached in his pocket and pulled out the necklace getting a good look at it, "Those bastards. They were ripping the person off. They were probably going to sell this for a lot of money, and only give the person the ten dollars."

            "Nine dollars," Gus corrected, "The seller's get ten percent commission."

            "Who cares! The point is, this whole think could have been about a good ol' fashioned rip off and not because this necklace has some kind of voodoo curse. For all we know it’s the original seller that ended up trying to whack these guys and take the receipt so there wouldn’t be anything linking them to the crimes."

            Gus thought it was a pretty good theory, then noticed a red splotch in the shape of a shoe print on the paper. "Uh, is this blood?" It was probably what made it stick to his shoe in the first place. He immediately dropped the paper and started wiping the bottoms of his feet on the grass of the boulevard. "Damn it I paid ninety bucks for these!"

            “How on sale were they?” James gave him a smirk.

            Gus, still too grumpy from the blood snapped, “Shut up Shawn!”

            Both men stood in silence. Gus felt instantly ashamed and James looked more taken aback then anything. “I−I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

            James waved him off. “It’s okay. I get it.”

            Gus took a deep breath. He’d been holding a lot back considering the circumstances but he really couldn’t hold everything in anymore. James seemed like a nice enough guy, but he had to lay down some ground rules when it came to living Shawn’s life, or at least _pretending_ to live it. “Look, I know it’s been weird and all for you but you have to understand, having you around creeps me out.”

            “Thanks…” James deadpanned with a frown.

            “No, really. Not you personally, just the fact that there is another world out there with people that look like us... it's creepy. Really creepy."

            James turned away grumpily and got into the vehicle, slamming the door and making Gus wince. He did his best to get the rest of blood off his shoe before getting in himself.

            "So, where the hell am I supposed to stay then?" James said with unhidden frustration as Gus was buckling up.

            "We'll go to the office. You can sleep on the couch there. Hopefully we can get something on this necklace before morning. I still have work."

            The Psych office wasn't far away. It sat near the end of Santa Barbara's biggest and busiest pier. It was also responsible for Shawn and Gus being able to spend days at Psych without ever having to go more than ten feet away from their front door. Vendors were a beautiful thing.

            "Wow." James looked at the building. "It's bigger than I thought it would be. The set is actually pretty tiny."

            "Well, it used to be small, but then we expanded to the whole building." Gus remembered how Shawn told him they were expanding. By _told_ he meant more like almost dropping a wall on him and shouting "TA DA!"

            James walked up to the door, but had to wait for Gus to unlock it. Gus made a note to get him a key... but then thought about what that meant. It meant James would be here for a long time, and Shawn might not get back.

            "You okay?"

            Gus blinked and realized he was still sticking his key in the lock and hadn't moved. "I'm _fine_." He stressed before calmly walking in. He watched James look around for a few minutes before his eyes settled on the stress toy on Shawn's desk.

            "Winky! Oh man you have Winky!" He rushed over and picked up the little toy and squeezed it. The eyes popped out and it made James smile. "Nice to have _something_ familiar around here."

            Gus started up his computer and waved a dismissing hand. "Shawn plays with that thing way too much."

            "The one thing I want when the show ends. Is this." *squeak*

            Gus flashed him an angry look. He didn't want to think of what would happen to them if the show ended. The whole situation gave him a headache and reminded him of the movie "The Nines." Would the world end when the show ended, or were they separate entities all together, and just happened to be strangely connected. His pondering was rudely interrupted when "Winky" hit him square on the noggin.

            "Gus, you look like your head is going to explode. I think you need this more than I do."

            That actually made Gus chuckle before getting back to business. "I don't get it. Who would make a necklace that switched people... especially when chance that the same two people would wear it at the same time is astronomically low."

            James opened Shawn's computer and booted it up. "Well alright Einstein," James smirked, "Let's check and see just how astronomically bad my luck is."

            "You know that's right."

            "Uh, Gus?"

            "What?"

            "I don't know Shawn's password..."

\----------------------------------

            **_REAL:_**

            After they went back into Joey's restaurant, Tim watched as... "Shawn".... picked at his food and smiled politely at the banter from the others at the table, but never participating.

            He was torn. Really really torn about whether or not he believed that the man across from him was the real Shawn Spencer. It just wasn't possible... but everything from the way he spoke, to the way he ate, and had refused to get anything stronger than a lemonade, was just plain weird. Then there was the hats and the way he'd reacted to the fans. James had always said that talking to fans was his favorite thing about shooting, which is why the red flags in Tim's mind went off when he'd stormed outside.

            "James, you're awfully quiet." Maggie leaned over to Shawn and put her head on his shoulder.

            "Yeah, uh." Shawn's eyes met Tim's as he tried to come up with an excuse. "I'm a bit tired. Been a long day."

            She made a pouty face and asked, "You wanna head up and get some sleep? We have to shoot early tomorrow."

            Sarcastic groans sounded from around the table. Everyone knew they had to shoot early, but they'd been having fun and had almost forgotten the time.

            Tim agreed that it was getting late, but then the thought occurred to him that Maggie was about to go home with Shawn Spencer, and not her real boyfriend. He wasn’t worried that Shawn would _do_ anything to her… probably, but the look on his face told Tim that he wasn’t even sure he should go with her either.

            Sighing, Tim made the decision that he wasn’t going to leave Shawn to the wolves. The guy had just gotten smacked into the middle of nowhere, and to tell the truth, Tim felt sorry for him.

            “Hey _James_.” Tim emphasized so Shawn would get the point that he was playing along. It took Shawn a second to remember Tim was talking to him, and he headed over.

“What’s up?”

“I have a couple things to show you at my apartment tonight.” Tim whispered and Shawn leaned back away from him, with a puzzled look.

“Um, you know I was kidding when I made the sexual tension comment…”

It took a moment for Tim to realize how much of a creeper he sounded like. Shawn didn’t really know a thing one about him so he didn’t blame him for assuming. “NO! No no no! It’s nothing like that. I just have some stuff to tell you if you’re going to be here a while, and I figure it gives you an out with Maggie.”

“Ooooh… okay.” Shawn nodded and looked at Maggie. “I’ll take care of this.”

Tim watched as Shawn went across the parking lot and up to Maggie before gesturing wildly in his direction. No doubt he was making up some grand excuse for not going home with her tonight. He felt a churning of guilt in his gut when her face fell, but she nodded and before Shawn could react she caught him off guard and kissed him on the mouth.

Shawn seemed to be into it for a brief second before his eyes shot open and he tactfully tried to back off. It didn't stop Tim from giving him a harsh glance when he returned.

With a guilty look, Shawn cleared his throat. "Ahem... so, ready?"

They went up to Tim's third floor apartment and were immediately greeted by his dog Lucy. He'd been able to bring her this time and had been good company for him while away from his family. After making kissy noises he looked up to find Shawn staring at him incredulously.

"What?"

"I just... never thought I'd see that. Carlton really needs to loosen up more."

A tinge embarrassed, Tim brought him the rest of the way inside the small apartment. He pulled out his computer chair and motioned for Shawn to sit down at his laptop.

Staring at it, Shawn looked less than impressed. "We have these over there too ya know."

Frowning, Tim griped, "Just... sit down!"

Shawn flopped bonelessly into the computer chair with a pout, crossing his arms.

Tim brought up Netfix and queued up Psych. "I thought you might want to see this, before you have any more surprises."

Shawn quickly scanned through all the titles and scoffed. "Who comes up with these names?"

"Mostly the writers. We find out what they are called when we get the scripts."

Continuing to read through the summaries, Shawn commented. "Dude, they miss so much!"

            Tim frowned and leaned in closer to see what he was looking at. "Like what?"

            "Well, there's the case where Gus and I had to go to a pet store and stopped a cat-napper."

            _Cat-napper..._ Tim stared at him blankly.

            "It's a lot more interesting than it sounds!" Shawn defended, "Gus found out he was allergic to cats and I got three stitches while rescuing the dang things." Shawn held up his arm and showed off a scar. One that he was sure James didn't have.

            "Point taken..." Tim replied thoughtfully. While Shawn continued to page through things, he went and grabbed a couple beers as he mulled things over in his head. Once he'd started noticing the details, it was glaringly obvious that despite looking exactly the same, Shawn and James were not only two different people personality wise, but physically too. That had to mean something.

            "Wow," Shawn's voice and nervous chuckle caught his attention again. "They do have some details in here..." He took a swig of the beer Tim had brought before his eyes widened and he choked on it mid swallow. After a coughing fit he started furiously typing. "Oh my God... please no... no no no."

            "What is it?!" Tim thought that something must have been horribly wrong, but then Shawn narrowed down his search and focused in on a certain episode. He stifled a chuckle as Shawn exclaimed 'AHA!' and began to skip through it. Maggie and James had mentioned to him how weird it was to shoot the scene, and he figured Shawn would be wondering just how much the show had shown of his and Juliet's first make-out session.

            "They stop at the car." He stated.

            Shawn looked up with a glimmer of hope. "The car?"

            "Yeah. They don't go past the car. You're dignity is intact. We're a cable TV show.... not HBO."

            Sagging back in the chair, Shawn breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God."

            Tim grimiced. He didn't want to think what Shawn was so relieved they hadn't shown.

            "Hmmm... Elvis. I think kissing in front of a whole bunch of people would have been a lot more romantic if that were actually playing at the time." Shawn smirked. Tim snorted and drank his beer.

            He watched for the next hour as Shawn laughed and grumbled his way through a bunch of episodes, hovering over "Santabarbaratown" for a moment, but refusing to click on it. Tim didn't blame him.

            Tim looked at his watch, it was after midnight. He really needed to get some sleep, but doubted Shawn would want to. "So, I'll leave you to it. We worked till two AM last night and I'm beat. There are some energy drinks and more beers in the fridge if you want."

            "Okay man.... and Tim?" Tim stopped and looked at Shawn. "Thanks."

            His lips curled up in a smirk and he nodded before heading to his bedroom.

            He did end up waking in the middle of the night though, and just happened to find Shawn surrounded by Red Bulls with Lucy on his lap and the Netflix player paused at a picture of Juliet's smiling face.

\---------------------------------

            **_PSYCH:_**

            Light filtered through the Psych window, causing the PSYCH logo's shadow to project over the back wall. James stretched and opened his mouth wide in a giant yawn. He rolled over to put his arm around Maggie, but realized too late to not fall off that couch that he wasn't in his apartment. With a painful *THUNK* he landed on his front, knocking the wind out of him.

            "Oooooowwww!" James painfully whined as he got off his stomach and to his knees. He was still in the Psych office. He looked around for Gus, but remembered that the pharmaceutical salesman went home after a couple hours of searching. They found a few things about talismans and voodoo, but nothing specifically about the necklace. Go figure.

            It frustrated him that they were still not any closer to finding a way to get him home. He missed his girlfriend, and as fun as it was to play Shawn Spencer, he knew it wasn't all that fun to BE him. He couldn't do it. He didn't _want_ to do it. He stood up and paced the room, trying to get his head right and figure out how to catch the murderer and wring some information out of him. _Maybe I just need to sling accusations around until I get the right one._ James snorted in amusement.

            First things first, he had to get a hold of Gus. He took the Psych phone out of his pocket and hit the speed dial. The phone rang a few times but Gus didn't answer. _He's probably still sleeping._ James was about to leave a message when he heard the click of the phone being picked up. "Hey Gus, I'm awake..."

            _"Do you have the necklace?"_

            A shiver went down James' spine. That definitely wasn't Gus' voice. "Who is this!?"

            _"Bring the necklace to the Red Robin on State Street or the black man is history."_

            If the situation wasn't so dire, James would have rolled his eyes, _Of course it had to be STATE STREET..._ "What time?" James growled into the receiver.

            _"You have one hour."_ The line then went dead.

            James hung his head and gripped the phone in frustration. The _one_ person who he could talk to and knew what was happening, just got kidnapped. Figures. There was only one thing he could do. He needed to get to that Red Robin, but he needed help too.

            He mentally checked off the people who would help him, and perhaps believe him and came up with only one name. He groaned loudly and dialed the number, knowing that desperate times called for desperate measures.

            When the gruff voice answered... James stumbled over the greeting, "Hey Hen...er Dad. I need some help."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All caught up for now. Sorry all the reviews and all got deleted with the move but I really do want to thank everyone who reviewed on Psychfic.


	7. The Show Must Go On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish I could have gotten this out sooner, but writing two stories and not publishing one yet leaves a lot of gaps between chapters. :(
> 
> When I get the other one out, soon I promise, I hope it will be a good enough apology for the wait.

**Chapter 7- The Show Must Go On**

 

**REAL:**

            The next day Shawn had to practically peel his head off the keyboard. It was such a regular occurrence for him to fall asleep after a night of cramming, he almost thought he was back home. The smell of fresh brewing coffee and breakfast squashed that hope to bits, but at least it was in a delicious way.

            He opened his eyes with a groan and looked around for his lap buddy Lucy, but found she'd gone traitor and was wagging her tail begging for the piece of bacon that Tim was currently holding above her nose. "Morning." Tim said way to cheerily.

            "God, don't you sleep?" Shawn asked looking at the clock. It was 7am and they had to have gone to bed around 1am.

            Tim shrugged nonchalantly. I'm used to it. You get sleep when you can on set." He smiled wryly. "You should see Dulé. I swear to God he can sleep anywhere."

            Shawn groaned as he stood and headed wearily over to the table. "I'll have to take your word on that man." He gratefully grabbed the coffee Tim offered and sipped it. "So what are we going to do about figuring out how I'm even here? All I know is that we have to find that voodoo necklace and where it came from."

            Tim looked at him, drinking his own cup of coffee. "We're back to that again? How do you even know it was the necklace?"

            "Well, I don't see anything else it could have been! Unless the door to the SBPD all of a sudden became an inner-demented portal!" He ranted with a sarcastic sneer.

            "You mean inter-dimensional?"

            "I've-"

            Tim held out a hand to stop him, "Don't even. This is weird enough without having to put up with your catch phrases."

            Shawn pouted and slumped farther into the chair.

            Sighing, Tim put his coffee down and looked at him, "I'll see what I can do to help you. Maybe I can poke around and see where Michelle got it." At Shawn's blank look he explained further, "Our costume designer."

            "Ooohhhh... but don't you guys have to shoot," He waved his hand dismissively, "scenes or something today?"

            "I thought about that, but I figured who better to act like Shawn Spencer than, well... _you_." Tim gave him a worried glance, "I know you have stuff on your plate, but it would be a huge help if you could at least _try._ We honestly can't wait to film. We don't have much time and a lot of people are counting on this."

            Shawn didn't know how he felt about it. From what he'd seen from watching the episodes they'd gotten more than one of his more "intimate" moments and it freaked him the hell out. Also, how the heck was he going to find the necklace to test his theory if he was being dragged around all day? But... there was a part of him that thought it would be kind of fun, in a weird sort of way, and he was never one to pass up on fun. Shawn finished the rest of his coffee in one gulp and grinned. "Count me in."

            An hour later they were at the lot. Maggie had car pooled with them since she didn't have a giant dog that would need a whole back seat to himself. She had asked how he was doing and whether they'd gotten their "man time" in.

            Shawn looked at her and cocked his head in a thoughtful way. She had a sweetness to her, but it was a different sweetness than his Juliet. It was hard not to hold her hand, kiss her... He squelched that thought. She was someone else's girlfriend. Hands off.

            To take his mind off of the woman beside him, he looked out the window as they drove through the studio, and at the many warehouses that stored the sets. Now that he wasn't having a panic attack, he was able to see that it wasn't all that big, but apparently almost all the inside sets were in this place. His whole life was here in little pieces.

            According to Tim, they were finishing up things at the "precinct" and then would be doing some location shots so they wouldn't be hanging around very long. Maggie waved goodbye to get dressed for her scenes and Tim pulled Shawn aside as soon as she was out of sight.

            "Here's the script. Try to get some of the lines down okay?" Tim handed him a stack of papers. Apparently, to shoot faster, they shot as many separate scenes as they could at the same time. That meant Tim would have to leave him to his own devices for a while. So, he did Shawn a favor by pointing out everyone that he could, and telling Shawn their names in the few minutes he had.

            Shawn did fine until Tim had to go change and he ran into a group of people he didn't know. The only way he got by in the conversation was to greet them with a "Heeeyyy... yoooou..." It took him only a couple times before he realized he was over annunciating again and just decided to avoid who he could, whenever he could.

            The more he ran into people that knew James, the bigger the chance of people finding out he _wasn't_ James. And he didn't want to be taken to some lab somewhere and experimented on, or put in some kind of freak show with the words, "MAN FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION" printed on a sign above his head.

            He was relieved when Dulé approached him a few minutes after he'd arrived in the main cast area. He _really_ missed Gus and his double was the next closest thing. Albeit with the Jersey accent that the actor had, Shawn figured he really did get all the girls Gus WISHED he could get. "Roday! We have to do some of the Psych office scenes, you down?"

            "Hell yeah!" Shawn exclaimed and bounced down the hall after him. He was dying to see how close the set was to the real thing.

            It ended up that it was _exactly_ as their office currently was, though a few of the items were in different spots as they were moved around frequently. "Wow..." Shawn noticed the windows were covered in that same black curtain material that he'd run into the day before and parts of the office were open, allowing cameras to fit in the small space.

            "Okay everyone quiet!" One of the stage hands shouted and immediately everyone obediently went silent.

            _Okay, what are we doing..?_ No one had told him anything about the "scene" they were shooting, but he'd always been good at playing things by ear.

            As soon as the director said "action" it was like a switch had been flipped and right in front of him was Gus. Dulé's entire demeanor changed and he went all serious, taking a seat by his computer and typing on it.

            "I don't know Shawn, I haven't been able to find anything out about that necklace besides the fact that it's called a plagi−"

            Shawn started as Dulé stopped midsentence and blew a huge raspberry. _I'll be damned!_ Shawn gaped. _They're filming the same case we were working on._ Maybe he should read the script, they might have something useful in there.

            "Damn it what's the line again?" The black man shouted, frustrated, but still laughing at himself.

            From the wings someone holding a script yelled out, "Plagioclase Feldspar!"

            "Alright, I got it..."

            It took Dulé at least three more times and a lot of good natured groans from the crew for him to get it right. Shawn cracked up after the second time, actually imagining Gus messing up one of his "precious" vocabulary words.

            "... I haven't been able to find out anything besides the stone is called a Plagioclase Feldspar and this color is really rare. Do you think it had anything to do with why the woman was killed?"

            Shawn flopped down in his chair, he didn't even have to think about what he was going to say, it just came out. "Gus, don't be the Applejack flavored Fruit Loops..."

            "Gus, don't be Madonna after she was like a virgin..."

            "Gus, don't be the wax in my ear..."

            Each time they shot his part of the scene, he'd come up with a different phrase and half the takes were ruined by the people on the sidelines laughing. Eventually they got through it though, and Shawn took the time to take a meal break, despite the fact that he had eaten not more than two hours ago.

            Unfortunately for him the person he'd dubbed "tall dude" took that moment to sneak up on him.

            "James!"

            Shawn practically jumped out of his skin, again. _What is it with these people and sneaking up on me?_ He gave the man a sour look. "What?"

            "We have to shoot your scene at Henry's house, c'mon!" The jovial grin on his face seemed to be infectious and Shawn found himself smiling back.

            The last scene had been fun, and the crew seemed like they had fun too. "Alright, lead on!"

            "So, did you like the additions to the scene?" The tall dude asked, making conversation. "I think I like this version better, and Dulé is all for it!"

            Shawn hadn't read the script yet. He'd been too into the mounds of food he'd found on tables all over the sets, so he had no idea what this guy was talking about. He gave him a thumbs up anyway, "Love em'. Can't wait to get up in there and shoot some film!" Shawn hoped he sounded excited. Apparently he did because the man's smile only got wider.

            They walked through a couple of doors and hallways before right in front of him was the house where he'd grown up. Albeit pieces of it, but just being there kicked up the Twilight Zone feeling a couple more notches. Not to mention all the cameras and crew in the room.

            "So, this will be where you ask Henry for help. Remember the changes okay? Corbin is just around the corner. We gotta get this done then we hit the road for some outside shots while we still he light." He grinned widely and stepped out of frame to the side of the room.

            _Okay, I ask my dad for help all the time. Should be easy.._. "No problem." Shawn mumbled.

            "Action!"

            A moment later his "dad" walked in. Corbin, Shawn remembered his name from the night before. "Shawn, what have you gotten yourself into! If you would have been careful, more _careful_ , and not gallivanting around crime scenes alone this never would have happened!"

            _Wow, he has my dad down pat._ It was actually too good. Shawn had heard that song and dance more than once and it never failed to raise his hackles. He thought about all the things he'd wanted to say to his father, but never did. Shawn actually cared for his dad, a lot, but he wondered how often in life does someone get an opportunity like this? A small smile crept to his lips, _They want acting? I'll give them acting._

            "So, I'm a screw up again." Shawn made sure he sneered the words out, "Big surprise there old man!"

            Corbin raised his eyebrows at him, obviously surprised by his intensity, but he had no idea how long Shawn had been holding this in.

            "You stand there in your blinding Hawaiian shirts and try to judge me?" He made big gestures at Corbin's wardrobe. "Let's turn that all seeing eye inward shall we? Oh wait, _you can't_. You can't because you rode that high horse you've been on for years down to almost nothing. The only thing left is the horse's ass. It's time to get off it dad!"

            "You've got some nerve kid!" Corbin played up the fight moving closer to Shawn, "I taught you everything you know!"

            "Not everything _I_ know, just everything _you_ know." Shawn poked Corbin in the chest.

            Corbin glared, "I'm not going to play this time Shawn. I'm not going to fall into one of your little blame games when it's _you_ that got your best friend kidnapped."

            "Well at least I didn't get _shot_ by mine... whhhhaaaat?!" Too into the scene it took a moment for what Corbin had said to register. "Gus was kidnapped?!" He turned to look at the tall dude. " _That's_ the change you made? You had Gus kidnapped? What kind of people..?" Shawn closed his mouth and held back the barrage of swear words he wanted to unleash on the people in the room.

            This whole thing was no longer fun. Everything, in every episode of the show had been something that had happened in his life... except this. Gus hadn't been kidnapped before he'd been dumped here, so did that mean he was now... just because they filmed it?

            Ignoring the shocked expressions of the crew, Shawn took off out the set door and down the corridors. He had to find the costume lady, and he had to find her now so he could get the hell out of this mess and back where he belonged. To _his_ Santa Barbara.

\--------------------------------

**PSYCH:**

If Henry had any substantial hair left, he'd be pulling it out. His son called less than ten minutes before claiming that Gus had been kidnapped and he had one hour to figure out how to get him back.

            He'd been pacing back and forth, expecting Shawn to roll up on his bike, giving excuses as to why it wasn't his fault that he may be getting his best friend killed because of his carelessness. What he _hadn't_ been expecting was Shawn sprinting up to the house, out of breath from running probably all the way from the office.           

            _What the hell?_ Henry watched out the kitchen window as Shawn looked the house over, both back and front, almost like he was making sure it was the right one. Finally Shawn went to the front door and knocked.

            He _knocked._

            Shawn never knocked. The fact that he'd walked in on him and Maddie making love was a testament to that.

            Before he could get through the front of the house to let him in, he was inside. "Dad!"

            Henry rounded the corner, strangeness of the situation aside, he was still pissed off. "Shawn, what have you gotten yourself into! If you would have been careful, more _careful_ , and not gallivanting around crime scenes alone this never would have happened!"

            Shawn didn't say anything. He just stood there with a troubled expression.

            "Well!? Don't you have anything to say for yourself?" Henry's anger was starting to turn to concern. This wasn't at all like Shawn. _Is he shell shocked?_ After another moment Shawn's eyes rose to meet his. _Here it comes._ Henry was actually relieved he was getting some reaction.

            But then, Shawn scoffed and smirked wryly.

            "You know. You act like everything is all my fault. That I am some great disappointment that never does anything right." Henry puffed out his chest, ready to give his retort. "But I know. I _KNOW_ how much you care about me, and how proud you are of me."

            _Where the heck is this coming from?_ Henry wasn't sure how to handle this. Spencers as a rule didn't tend to bare their feelings often and it was usually a terribly awkward situation when they did.

            Shawn rubbed his lip and started to pace. "Gus is his own person you know. He chooses to work beside me. He knows the risks of it, more than you do."

            Henry immediately got indignant. Shawn learned everything he knew from him. Who was he to say that he didn't know the risks of the job? "What? I was an officer for years! How can you say −"

            "You don't, okay. You weren't there and I never told you." Shawn swallowed hard, like he was unsure he should say anything.

            "Oh really? Well, what did you not tell me?" _This excuse had better be good._ Henry stood with his arms folded scowling as Shawn stopped in front of him.

            "Yin had us down for the count. He had us tied up with a needle against Gus. Ready to kill him. I could have saved us if I tried, and I did try."

            Henry's breath caught in his throat. It had been almost four years, and he hadn't heard that, and hadn't heard Shawn even say the word Yin in that long either. Only Shawn, Gus, and Yang had ever known what had happened to Yin in that room, and how he was killed. "Shawn?"

            "And Gus, he said he'd never regretted anything. Not one second, and he'd do it all again." Shawn's hazel eyes burned into his own. "So don't go blaming him for everything. Other people make decisions too, and even if Shawn isn't all that responsible, he still tries to do the right thing. That should count for something in your _binder_."

            _Him? Shawn? When did my son start talking about himself in the third person?_ Then realization hit him. His son had a mental break. Gus getting taken must have sent him over the edge. "Kid, are you alright? I uh, may have pushed you a bit hard. We should call Juliet and Lassiter, they'll be able to help okay?" Henry started reaching for his phone.

            Shawn rolled his eyes, "For the love of... Henry listen."

            The retired officer stiffened as his son's demeanor completely changed. His stance, his speaking pattern...everything. He put his phone away and stared warily.

            "We have exactly forty five minutes before some murderer wants to meet me to get this." He reached in his pocket and Henry flinched back, unsure of what would be pulled out. It ended up just being a beaded necklace with a green, jade like stone. "He said to trade this for Gus."

            "Well let's give it to him then! It's just a necklace." Henry didn't understand why they were even discussing the matter. Shawn would never have hesitated to give up anything for his friends.

            Shawn's hand closed protectively around it. "It isn't that simple..."

            "Not that simple? Not that _simple_..." Henry squinted his eyes. There was something wrong here. His instincts had been telling him that since Shawn arrived. If he didn't know better, he'd say the person in front of him wasn't his son at all. Taking a chance, he narrowed his eyes and asked, "Who are you?"

            The man in front of him pursed his lips. "Henry, I don't have time to explain that right now. Suffice to say, I do want to save Gus, but we need to find a way to get him back _and_ keep the necklace. To do that, I need your help."

            _Goddamn it Shawn, what did you get into now?_ He knew he should really call the others in, but he'd have to do that after they got Gus, and the man was right. There wasn't much time. "Fine, I'm listening..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to break the POV pattern. I couldn't do Gus' and move the story along, so I chose Henry rather than going with James' because I wanted to get into his head when he figured things out...kinda. I always figured Henry would be professional enough to get down to business, even when faced with the fact that his son might not be his son.
> 
> Shawn also knows Gus may be missing and imagine how crazy he's gonna go knowing there's nothing he can do for him while he's stuck in another reality.


	8. Time to Meet Your Maker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim deals with a panicked Shawn while James and Henry have to team up to save Gus from a murderer.

**Chapter 8- Time to Meet Your Maker**

**REAL:**

            "Spencer had better have a good lead, or so help me I am going to smack him so hard his hair gel will come off."

            "Detective!" Kirstin exclaimed, in character as Chief Vick as the cameras rolled on their scene.

            Tim looked like a deer in headlights, giving the impression that he hadn't meant to say that out loud. "Uh, what I mean is, I hope Spencer is okay... and not in any danger." He gave Kirstin a faux innocent look, but she continued to glare at him suspiciously.

            "Alright, grab O'Hara and head down to the shop, and be _careful._ " She made a dismissing gesture and Tim headed out the door, stopping as Andy yelled "CUT!"

            As soon as the word was shouted, Kirstin burst out laughing. "Hair gel Tim?" Kirstin gasped out and a bunch of the crew were chuckling. It was a regular occurrence when one of them uttered a funny line, and it made coming to work every day for hours a lot easier.

            They'd been filming the scene where they'd just gotten the call from Shawn about the shooting at the consignment shop. Tim had hammed it up the first couple of times, finally adding a bit of improv with the hair gel line. He was surprised Kirstin held it together enough to get through the scene.

            It suddenly crossed Tim's mind that if they were shooting a scene where Shawn got shot at, did it mean that James was really getting shot at? It sobered his mood, but he knew Shawn didn't die in the episode, so James would be safe... right? This whole parallel universe thing was diving him a little bonkers.

            "Okay guys! Take a bit of a break, we'll be packing up to do some location shots!" Andy called out and everyone wandered in their own direction.

            Tim wondered how Shawn was fairing in his scenes and decided to go check it out. Once he made it half way to the other set, he ran into Kelly, one of the producers, going the opposite direction. He smiled as she approached him.

            "Tim, glad I found you. Have you seen Maggie around?" Her tone was concerned.

            Frowning in confusion, Tim wondered what was going on. "No, not since we got here. What's wrong?"

            "Well, it's James. He had a bit of a melt down and ran off the set."

            _Oh man! I knew I shouldn't have left him alone!_ He gave her a surprised look, "Wow, what happened?"

            Kelly shook her head, "Everything was going fine. He and Corbin were really going at it, and when they got to the part about Gus being kidnapped, he just flipped."

            "Whoa, wait a minute... Gus getting kidnapped?" Tim never heard of that being in the script.

            "Yeah, Steve added it last minute for some pizzazz. No one knew James would get that upset about it."

            Tim took a deep breath, "I'll see if I can find him okay."

            "Should I still find Maggie?" She asked.

            "NO!" He said too loudly, and tried to make a smooth recovery. "Er, uh... noooo. I'll handle it. He's probably just stressed. You know how intense he can get sometimes." The last thing Tim or Shawn needed was to have Maggie getting in the middle of things. She was a smart woman, and lord knew how much more strangeness she could take before she realized something was very wrong.

            Kelly nodded and waved goodbye, heading down the hall.

            Tim stood there a moment, wondering where Shawn could have gotten off to, before he remembered telling him the costume designer's name. She was practically his ticket home if she had the necklace, and that would be the first place he'd look if it were him in the same situation.

            Sure enough, when he approached the dressing room, he was almost hit in the head with a flying cowboy hat as Shawn ransacked the place trying to find the necklace.

            "Dammit!" Shawn exclaimed as he stood up amid a pile of costumes.

            Tim skirted around the larger piles as he approached. From what he knew, Shawn could be pretty volatile when pissed off, and he looked _very_ pissed off. "Shawn..." He started tentatively.

            Growling in frustration, Shawn turned to face him. "Did you know?! Huh? Did you know what they planned to do to Gus and just decided not to say anything so I'd go along with your little television show?!" He kicked a pile of clothes in frustration. "I need to go home!" Shawn then turned around and continued digging.

            "Look, Shawn... we'll find Michelle, and see if she knows where the necklace is. You don't need to dig through everything. It's organized," He looked at the mess and shook his head. "Well, it _was_ organized."

            "I'll put it back later." Shawn grumbled, shaking a t-shirt off of his shoe as he stepped out of the pile.

            Tim hadn't thought of that. Shawn probably _could_ put everything back exactly as he found it. Getting him to actually do it would be another matter entirely. "Shawn...I didn't know about Gus. I just found out when you went AWOL from the set."

            "How can they do this though?" Shawn looked at him, lost. "Don't they care that they're messing with my life?"

            Tim was about to say something to try to calm Shawn down, when a head peeked in the door. "James?"

            Both men looked up to see Steve Franks come around the corner, aghast at the huge mess.

            It wasn't very often that Steve didn't have a smile on his face, and he was actually very much like Shawn in that respect. When he wasn't smiling or joking there was usually something really wrong.

            "Oh man James, are you okay?" Steve asked and Shawn grunted grumpily. "I'm sorry about the Gus thing. I−I'll change it if you want."

            Shawn, exasperated, turned to Tim pointing at Steve. "Alright, who the hell is this sasquatch? He's been following me around all morning."

            "Sasquatch?" Steve blinked in confusion.

            _Oh this isn't good._ Tim wanted to smack himself in the head for forgetting to tell Shawn who Steve Franks was. The man created the television show for Pete's sake. "Shawn, you know _Steve_ is just trying to give you some _creative input._ " He really hoped that Shawn would get the hint. Every single Psych episode that Shawn watched the night before had, in big letters, "Created By Steve Franks" in the beginning credits.

            Shawn's eyes narrowed for a moment then widened in understanding as he pointed to Steve. " _HIM?_ Really?"

            Indignant outrage wasn't what Tim was hoping for.

            "Oh boy, do I have a bone to pick with you buddy." Shawn stopped up to Steve, tripping a couple times as he climbed through the piles of fabric debris. He stared up, too angry to care that Steve was almost full foot taller than he was. "You! You think you can just mess with someone's life? Huh!? Oh, let's kidnap Shawn's best friend. It'll be fun! Hey, how about shooting his dad, breaking him and his girlfriend, or the other ka-jillion things you've put me through for your entertainment! Well, you can suck it!"

            Tim rubbed his face with his hand in frustration. If that didn't let _something_ out of the bag, he didn't know what would. As it was, Steve looked heart broken at the prospect that James was mad it him.

            "James... what's going on? You helped me write a lot of that stuff. Why..." Steve's eyes went blank in realization. Tim knew what was coming too. Anyone else would have thought that James Roday had gone off the deep end. Hell, he'd thought that himself until there had been solid evidence to the contrary. However, Steve Franks was not like everyone else.

            The inspiration for Shawn's abilities came from Steve's own childhood experiences of the "how many hats" games with his own police officer father. He came from a family of cops just as much as Shawn did, and he learned a thing or two about knowing if people were telling the truth.

            "Shawn?" Steve said slowly, and looked at Tim for confirmation. When he nodded, Steve turned back to stare at the no longer fictional character in disbelief. "Shawn Spencer? How?"

            "It's a long story Steve..." Tim sighed, and began to explain how on earth the character he's had in his head for years could suddenly be standing in front of him, big as life and pissed as hell.

\--------------------------------------

            **PSYCH:**

            As awkward moments went, this had to be at the all time top of James' list. Henry Spencer was having to drive him to the Red Robin so he could negotiate Burton Gusters' release from captivity with a three time murderer. In a million years, he'd never thought that this scenario would play out, but here he was.

            "I knew I should have stayed in bed yesterday." James mumbled under his breath.

            They pulled up in front of the restaurant with fifteen minutes to go before the meeting, which left James that long to stew under Henry's scrutinizing gaze. Despite the risks for James, he'd asked Henry to call in Juliet and Carlton to let them know what was going on, but to ask them to stay back so whoever had Gus wouldn't get spooked and hurt him. All James had to do was get the location of Gus out of the murderer, then they'd be free to take him down.

            After they'd made their plans and parked, it was a full two minutes before Henry demanded more answers, which was a minute and thirty seconds more than James thought it would be.

            "So, are you going to tell me how the hell you look exactly like my son, and what you're doing here?"

            James doubted Henry would really believe him, but if anyone in this universe deserved to know where Shawn was, it was Henry. "Long story short, the necklace I'm supposed to trade Gus for, switched us."

            Henry gave him a blank look for a moment before clarifying, "... so you're saying you are really Gus?"

            "No! Not switched us, switched _us_." James pointed to himself and made swirly gestures with his hands. "Shawn and I."

            "Oh, really." Henry squinted suspiciously, "How do I know that you aren't just Shawn playing a prank on me. If you know anything about my son, you'd know he's done some complicated stuff. Prove it."

            James put a finger to his lips, contemplating the best way to convince Henry. He first thought of showing him the picture he'd shown Gus, but Henry was a cynic by nature and would think that James had photo shopped it. So, he did the best thing he could think of and told Henry something that he'd never tell Shawn in a million years.

            Apparently the large grin that suddenly appeared on his face was making Henry nervous, because the elder Spencer started squirming in his seat.

            "You still go to that 1930's, dress up dance club on the weekends. _Every_ weekend."

            Henry's eyes widened and he started sputtering, trying to deny the accusation. "Not every weekend. Have you been spying on me?"

            _Of course he would think that._ "Damn it Henry, the point is I'm not Shawn. I'll tell you more about it later, but right now I need your help to make sure the guy who has murdered at least three people in the last twenty four hours, doesn't make Gus the 'former president of the being alive club.' Can you do that?"

            Henry pursed his lips and glared, but agreed. "Fine, but one wrong move buddy, and I'm having you taken in too." He went back to glowering out the window, which to James was a huge improvement from glowering at him.

            They didn't have long to wait before James saw a very shady man get out of his car and look around expectantly, as if looking for someone.

            He had short but messy dark blond hair and was going white around the temples. His dark green jacket was torn and ragged, almost as if the man was homeless or just had the worst fashion sense in the history of mankind.

            James pointed him out to Henry, but of course the former officer had already noticed the suspicious individual. It didn't look like any of the cops had arrived yet, so they had to wing it so the man wasn't left waiting too long. "Pull around back and let me out, then watch from the truck. If anything goes wrong, the cavalry should storm in."

            Henry nodded and slowly pulled around the back trying not to attract any attention.

            As soon as the creepy guy was out of sight, James took a deep breath and got out of the car. He really hoped he wasn't going to get himself killed, because like he said, he _wasn't_ Shawn, and if he ended up getting a gun in his face he didn't think he'd be able to play it off.

            Peeking around the corner, he saw that the man was looking around impatiently. There was also no missing the handgun in the man's belt loop. James realized too late that he'd forgotten to warn Henry that the man was armed, but there was nothing he could do about it now but hope Shawn's dad would never have to find out about it. "Here goes nothing..." James stepped out and approached Gus' kidnapper.

            As he got closer he found out the hard way that the man smelled worse than he looked. His homeless theory was really starting to make a lot more sense. The man caught sight of him as well, turning towards him and moving his shirt out of the way, exposing the gun in a subtle threat.

            "Stop right there pretty boy."

            Holding up his hands in a placating gesture, Shawn stopped a safe distance away. "Chill. I'm here because you called me here. Where's Gus? What did you do to him?!"

            The man's eyes darted to the side, as if making sure James was alone. "He's in an out of the way place. If you give me the necklace, I'll tell you where he is."

            "How about you tell me where he is and I give you the necklace." James deadpanned and glared. "What the hell is so special about this anyway?"

            The man actually smirked. "I'm guessing you already know that, don't you? Now give it to me!" Before hes could react, the murderer had pulled his gun and pointed it at his stomach.

            James swallowed hard and stared at the man's finger which was the one thing between him and death. He glanced around, still no detectives. _I gotta stall!_

            "Why should I?" James bluffed, trying to keep the nervous squeaks out of his voice. "It's my ticket home. Why the hell do you want it, and why kill all those people?"

            A hard look came over the man's features, "Who the hell cares if they die. It's not like they're real people."

            James' mouth went dry. The same thing that happened to him, must have happened to this guy, and he wasn't able to get back. _What if I'm never able to get back? What if I never see any of my friends and family again?_

            As if the man could tell what he was thinking, he started to laugh. "Figured it out did you? Good for you." He mocked and raised the gun to James' head. "Now I'm not going to ask again, hand it over or you'll be as dead as the others."

            James reached slowly in his pocket, grasping the necklace tightly, trying to keep it together. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a flash of gray pantsuit that signaled the arrival of Juliet and most likely Carlton as well. She had her back to a nearby car, waiting for an opening. All he had to do was give it to her.

            "Here you go then." James pulled out the necklace and tossed it to the man, who reached out to catch it, fumbling with the gun in the process.

            That was all the distraction needed for James to jump out of the way as Carlton made a flying leap at the distracted criminal. Both men landed hard, the murderer on his back, and Carlton laying sprawled on top of him. The gun luckily flew out of reach by the force of the blow, so it was no problem for the angry Irish detective to flip the perp over and cuff him.

            As soon as he was pulled to his feet by both Juliet and Carlton, James got in the man's face. "Where's Gus!? What did you do to him dammit!?"

            "Spencer back off!" Carlton griped, trying to push the man past him to the waiting Crown Vic.

            James was about to protest, but he was held back by Henry. "Hold up kid. We'll talk to him at the station. Kicking his ass in the parking lot isn't going to make him talk."

            He shrugged off Henry's grip. "Maybe not, but it will sure as hell make me feel better."

            "Shawn?" James looked to his left to see Juliet watching him worriedly. She walked up and grabbed his hand gently. "Gus will be okay. We'll find him. I'll see you at the station okay?"

            Nodding and hoping she was right, James watched her go and felt a vice like sorrow grip him and the fear he'd never see Maggie again came back full force. His breath hitched and he turned back to Henry's truck before anyone could see him lose it. Hopefully they'd be able to get some answers out of stinky to find Gus, and to be able to figure out how to get him home.

            James was so distracted he almost didn't feel his phone vibrating in his pocket. He reached in and answered it. "Hello?"

            "Dude, you will never guess what happened to me!"

            James spun around and faced Henry, with a look of surprised relief. "What the? Gus?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Steve Franks meets Shawn! I didn't plan on it happening this early, but it just seemed to fit. They always said in interviews how much like Shawn he is and it would really take a unique individual to dream up these characters. :)


	9. Last Minute Scene Changes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still plugging away! 
> 
> Sorry about the lateness but I'm actually writing for Pineapple Radio now, and almost finished the dramatic story I've been hinting at and it's taken up a bit of my time.
> 
> Thanks everyone for reading and I really hope you enjoy this extra long chapter.

**Chapter 9- Last Minute Scene Changes**

**REAL:**

            It didn't take long for Tim to spill the beans about the whole ordeal to Steve, it had only really been less than a day since it happened. As Shawn listened, he squirmed in his seat anxiously. He usually loved the attention, but just when he'd started to come to terms with what was going on, the parallel dimension had to throw him another curve ball in the form of a really tall child-like man who somehow started writing a TV show about his life.

            _This guy is way too much like me for my liking._

            After Tim finished, Tall Dude... Steve, stared at Shawn for a lot longer than he felt comfortable with. He put up for it as long as he could before giving Steve a disgusted look, "Whoa, could you stop with the _staring_. I don't even think I'd want Jules looking at me like that."

            Steve blinked and gave Shawn an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, it's just, WOW! Tim, why didn't you tell me right away?"

            Scoffing Tim leaned against the wall and shook his head. "Oh _sure_. I'd be one phone call away from the loony bin if I'd gone around broadcasting that I've been hanging around with Shawn Spencer all day."

            "It's true. The guys in West Haven were notorious for saying crazy stuff like that." Shawn actually remembered his stint in the psych ward fondly. He'd have to see if they still had those super soft mitts around here somewhere...

            "Shawn, was what Tim said about the necklace true? You think that's what brought you here?" Steve asked seriously, as he weren't experiencing the weirdest situation in his entire life.

            _Maybe it's the water... these people all seem to be strangely okay with all this._

            Snapping out of his thoughts, he stuttered, "Uh− yeah. I think so. It's the only thing I remember doing before I got here, unless my Pumas suddenly became capable of _interstellar_ travel." He waved a foot at Steve.

            Tim opened his mouth to say something. Most likely to stop Steve from falling into the "heard it both ways" trap. Shawn knew it was supposed to be _inter-dimensional_. Any idiot with thirty-six years of sci-fi under his belt would know that.

            Surprisingly all Steve did was smile wider and say nothing.

            _This guy is good._ Shawn smirked. "So, where is this Michelle person, and where would she put the necklace?" He was getting impatient, as interesting as this conversation was, he still really wanted to get home.

            Rolling his eyes good naturedly, he reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone, dialing a number. "Hey! Michelle! Say, could you come down to the costume area for a moment." His eyes widened as he looked around the ransacked room. "Noooo.... I haven't touched a thing." He paused, "I _know_ you have a system, I wouldn't dream of tampering with it."

            Shawn rubbed the bottom of his nose and looked around at the mess he'd made, feeling ashamed. There were piles by every rack thrown haphazardly in multi-colored piles. At the time he'd just been so freaked out about Gus he didn't stop to think about anything besides getting the hell out of here.

            Hanging up, Steve looked at Shawn and Tim, "We have less than five minutes to straighten this place up or she's going to kill us."

            Sighing in trepidation Shawn put a hand to his head and mentally arranged the items from the floor to their respective places. "Red shirt, there! Police outfit, there!" He started pointing at each place everything had to go and the other men took to the task. Apparently Michelle was one scary woman if she had them this desperate to stay in her good graces.

            Surprisingly, under his guidance, they finished more than a minute before she showed up, looking at the three suspiciously for hanging out in her area. "Uh, what's going on?"

            Steve walked up to her nonchalantly with a smirk, "Hey Michelle. We're shooting the next necklace scene early and were wondering if you could do me a favor and get it out for us."

            That was a convincing lie if Shawn had ever heard one, which he had. Many many times.

            Michelle reached into the bag she was carrying and produced the necklace, handing it to Steve with a shrug. "Okay. Just let me know when you're done with it."

            _Well that was easy._ In his experience, things were never as simple as just "asking." _Maybe there is a plus to being in this place._ As the necklace was passed from Steve to himself, Shawn stared at it. Besides the green stone with a flake of gold on the front, it looked like a regular, beaded chain necklace. Nothing special.

            Apparently Tim was on the ball because out of the three of them he had the idea to ask, "Where did you get this anyway?"

            Shrugging, she explained. "I actually got it from one of the actors who is working on the episode." Michelle looked at Steve, "That local actor who's playing... _Stern_ something. The one you hired for the villain. He overheard me talking about going to a flea market for a cheap necklace during his audition, and just gave it to me. Said it was his grandmother's and he didn't want it anymore."

            Shawn's eyes widened, and he and Steve looked at each other before simultaneously asking, " _Where is he?"_

            "Well," She put a finger to her lips in thought. They're doing the location shoots in about an hour. I suspect he's probably going to be at the Red Robin for the hostage negotiation."

            At the words "hostage negotiation" Shawn's eyes narrowed and he glared dangerously at Steve.

            "Uh, there may be a change of plans on that one Michelle." Steve watched Shawn nervously.

            "Well, okay. Just let me know if you need me. I'm going to be helping Maggie find clean gray pantsuit." Michelle waved and left.

            A moment after her leaving, Steve turned to Shawn. "I'm sorry! I didn't know you were actually _real_ when I wrote that okay!"

            "Well I _am_ real, and really pissed off man! You can't have Gus kidnapped!" Shawn protested. He couldn't live with himself if anything happened to his best friend because of him.

            Tim frowned, "Wasn't it originally going to be Juliet that was kidnapped?"

            Steve's head whipped in Tim's direction and he practically whined. "You aren't helping Tim!"

            Ignoring the statement, because he couldn't even _think_ about how livid he would be if it really would have been Juliet that was taken, he asked, "Why does anyone have to be kidnapped anyway? Haven't you guys ever heard of rewrites? Just... ya know, re-write him not getting kidnapped."

            Raising an eyebrow, Steve explained, "They actually improv all the time, but this scene is more complicated than just not having Gus kidnapped. We have him get abducted specifically so Shawn...er _you_ meet the killer and catch him."

            Shawn frowned in concentration, "You say that you guys improv all the time. From what I've seen, you've gotten a lot of things spot on..." An idea started forming in his head, it was crazy and bold... and just might work. If they could "improv", they could spark something in his Santa Barbara that might save Gus. It couldn't hurt to try. "Maybe we could throw a curve ball in the works that get's Gus off the hook, but still have the killer want to meet for the necklace."

            "How do you know it'll work? We could be doing this all for nothing if it doesn't change things. There's no way we can know." Tim pointed out, and it almost burst Shawn's bubble.

            He sighed, "We need to at least try before we go asking questions about the necklace. I don't want Gus hurt for the sake of some kind of plot device. Once that's taken care of, we'll talk to that Stern guy and see about getting me back home."

            "Well, do you have any ideas?" Steve asked him, looking nervous.

            Shawn put a finger to his lip and thought about it for a moment. There was something he needed to know before he could really piece together his idea. "Stern just wants the necklace right? That's the whole reason he's kidnapping anyone?" Steve nodded, confirming Shawn's hope and he grinned widely.

            Tim must have gotten the idea behind his large smile and huffed out an exasperated breath. "Do we really want to know what you're thinking?"

            Shawn was almost bouncing excitedly, "If you can get that Frappé guy to agree to it, I think I've got it!"

            "You mean _Dul_ _é_?" Tim asked.

            Shawn waved a dismissing hand, "Yeah him. Besides," He snickered, "Gus will totally deserve this for eating the last of the puddings in the fridge last week." Shawn didn't want to see his friend hurt, but he couldn't let him off too easy either.

            Encouraged by Shawn's enthusiasm, Steve grinned too as Tim looked on with interest. "What did you have in mind?"

\----------------------------------------

**PSYCH:**

            _"Gus?"_ Came James' concerned voice from the other end of the phone. He sounded almost relieved. If Gus hadn't been in the state he was currently in, he'd have wondered why James had been so worried about him. It wasn't even nine in the morning.

            Gus adjusted his still damp and gooey socks, "Dude, you will never guess what happened to me!" He almost shouted into the receiver after having probably the craziest, most bad lucked hour of his entire life.

 

 

            The day had started out alright. He'd gone down to the boardwalk strip mall's Del Taco for some grub, then swung by Jamba Juice next door for some smoothies. He had figured James would be hungry, since the only thing he'd eaten since getting here the day before was half an ice cream cone. If he was _anything_ like Shawn he'd be practically crying for food by now.

            All was still going well up until the time Gus had walked out of Jamba Juice balancing six molé tacos, four churros, two spicy potato rounds containers, and the smoothies. Someone cut in front of him when he opened the door causing most of the food to cascade down to the ground. As he made a mad grab for it, the smoothies went too, the fruity concoctions getting into his shoes and covering them in a mosaic of yellow and red slush. Not to mention the bags of food were saturated with the goop as well. A complete loss.

            "Man! Those shoes cost me ninety bucks!" Truth be told, he was more devastated that the food was a waste than he was about his shoes. He'd bent over, and like a good Samaritan, who wasn't going to get a ticket for littering, threw everything in one of the trash bins. He gave up on the food for now, he'd just take James to get more later. He shook as much smoothie off of his feet as he could, and headed to the Blueberry.

            Once there he felt his pockets and realized with horror that he'd been so focused on the food, he'd forgotten his keys were in his hand when everything fell. They must have been swept up with the other bags and thrown away. In a panic, he headed for the garbage and dug through it, desperately searching for the keys.

            "Hey buddy!" A few seconds into his search, Gus heard a voice behind him and turned. It was a boardwalk security guard. The businesses in the area paid him to keep an eye on everything. "You can't be digging in the garbage!" He frowned, looking Gus up and down.

            From his sojourn in the trash, Gus realized he'd gotten everything from smoothie, to ketchup, to taco sauce on his pale purple shirt, and inadvertently had made himself look like some sort of bum.

            Giving his most personable smile and, he pointed to the trash, "I'm sorry, my car keys got put in the garbage. I'm just trying to get them out."

            The security guard gave him a disbelieving look, "You threw your keys away?"

            Gus was starting to sweat. He hated confrontation and the man did not look happy. He chuckled nervously. " No, no you misunderstand. I dropped my food and the keys got mixed up with it when I threw it away."

            The security guard put a hand on his radio and stepped forward. "Look _pal._ I'm not buying it. If you need a free meal there's a shelter on State Street, but you aren't getting one here, so beat it!"

            Gus retreated away from the security guard back to the Blueberry. He stood outside of it pouting. _I should probably call James and tell him to bring me the spare._ He kept one at the Psych office and it wasn't that far away so he was pretty sure the actor could find it.

            As he reached for his phone, making a face at the thought of his hands getting it all sticky. He'd barely gotten it out of his pocket when a man slammed into him, knocking the phone and him to the ground.

            The man started to say something and Gus could have sworn he felt something cold and metal rest against his side for a moment. Self preservation kicked in and before his assailant could get more than a few syllables out, he'd slapped and kicked until the weight holding him down finally disappeared.

            Breathing heavily, he got shakily to his feet and realized that who ever had tackled him, had taken off with his phone. "What the hell is wrong with people! Gah!" He stamped his foot with a loud squish, and knew he'd have to walk to the Psych office himself. Not to mention he had a few bruises on his leg from being knocked down.

            Miserable, limping, and with soggy sticky socks, he made his way down the boardwalk and beach, ignoring the judging stares from the tourists. Once at the office he'd realized quickly that James wasn't there anymore. The big clue was the locked front door. Shawn _never_ remembered to lock it.

            "Damn it! The one time I need Shawn and his bad habits, and I end up getting a mature, responsible look alike." He said out loud, earning a few more stares from the nearby vendors.

            Gus thought about what he should do. His super sniffer was going haywire because of the stench coming from his clothes and he needed to change. He figured he could use a pay phone to call James, but he didn't have any coins and he hadn't seen any pay phones on the way to the office anyway. He did still have his wallet though, and one of the articles in his safe cracking magazine had a tutorial on how to open locks with a credit card.

            It was worth a shot.

            Glancing around slyly he reached into his pocket and grabbed out his wallet. He wasn't sure this wouldn't ruin his credit cards, so he decided to use his driver's license instead. It ended up being a lot harder than the article made it out to be, and ten minutes later, the only thing that had happened was his license was broken and barely recognizable. The picture was missing, and the name only said:

            −ON

            −TER

            With a sigh of defeat, Gus decided it best to just go to Henry's house and see if he could find where James went later. Turning around, he started walking away from the building when a police cruiser pulled up.

            "Oh thank God!" Gus grinned. They'd help him out and let him use a phone. He headed for the car when an officer he didn't know popped up, gun drawn.

            "FREEZE!"

            Gus squealed and held up his hands instinctively, showing he wasn't armed.

            The officer, keeping the gun aimed at him, carefully came around the cruiser to stand in front of him. "I got a call about someone trying to break into this office. I assume that was you."

            _Oh my GOD! How could this be happening to me?_ "It's my office! I just forgot my keys!" He said desperately.

            "Show me some ID." The cop lowered his gun, but didn't put it away.

            Gus looked at the broken and battered license in his hand and groaned, before handing it over.

            "What the hell is this?" The cop held up the now useless hunk of plastic.

            "I tried to get the door open with it but I couldn't."

            "Oh, so you admit you were trying to get into the building..." The officer grabbed a bag from his pant's pocket and put the license in it. A bag marked "EVIDENCE."

            "Yes... I mean no! I mean... crap." Gus sagged as the officer grabbed out his cuffs and put them on his wrists. A little too tightly for his liking.

            "You have the right to remain silent."

            As Gus was pushed into the cruiser, he wondered where the hell James had gone and why he wasn't there to back him up. _I'm gonna kill you James!_

 

 

            James was quiet on the other end of the line as Gus finished his tale. "When I got hauled in, Buzz saw me right away and told the other officer to let me go. He also told me you'd called and said I'd been kidnapped."

            _"Yeah, uh... this guy had your phone and said if I didn't meet him in an hour, he'd do something to you. I had to get out of the office quick. We probably just missed each other._ He nervously chuckled. _What are the odds?"_

            Gus snorted grumpily. What _were_ the odds? Pretty damn good where his life was involved. "Where are you?" He asked, dropping the subject of how screwed up his life could be.

            _"I'm actually on my way to the station. Juliet and Lassiter caught the murderer and should be coming in a few minutes ahead of us."_

            Gus blinked wondering if he'd heard James right. "Us?"

            More silence.

            "JAMES!"

            _"Okay okay! I may have had to tell Henry something in order to get him to drive me to find you."_

            Gus sighed. _Great. More explaining to do._ "Alright fine, but dude could you _please_ bring some food? I'm absolutely starving!"

\------------------------------------

**REAL:**

            It hadn't taken much convincing for Dulé to go for Shawn's idea, but Tim had already knew it wouldn't. The black man had so much manic energy and they often had to _find_ crazy stuff for him to do. James of all people was usually the one tempering _him_ , but once Shawn got thrown in the mix and started explaining what he would have to do...well, they'd been talking, giggling, and eating for the last hour as they sat in the lunch room, waiting for Steve to inform Andy Berman of the changes for his episode.

            Tim heard someone come up from behind him, but figured it was Steve coming back so he didn't look. He was having too much fun watching Shawn genuinely light up for the first time since arriving. Oddly enough, it was because he was thinking up ways to torture Gus. Go figure.

            "Hey Tim." Said a familiar voice from behind him.

            Out of habit, he turned and looked, grinning. "Hey Jimmi." He went to look back to Dulé and Shawn before he did a double take. _"JIMMI?"_

            It wasn't a huge surprise to see Jimmi Simpson on set. He was good friends with James and made frequent stops just to say "hello" when he was in the area. The problem was, James wasn't here at the moment... and Shawn only knew Jimmi as his character on the show. Unfortunately for him that character had been Mary Lightly; The guy who died in his arms after being stabbed by Yin.

            This wasn't good.

            "Jimmi−uh, what's up... why are you here?" Tim looked behind him to see if Shawn had seen him, and blocked the line of sight just to make sure he wouldn't.

            Jimmi gave a large smile, "Maggie said James was feeling down. Brad couldn't come and I was in the area."

            Tim cursed internally. He knew Maggie would see something was off, but didn't expect her to send in the cavalry. He looked around to see if she happened to call Michael, AKA "Adam Hornstock," James' other good friend that usually visited. It would probably be less of a mental blow for Shawn, but he didn't see him anywhere.

            The only thing he could hope to do now, was to get Jimmi out of there ASAP. "Hey, you might want to come back later. He's pretty into the scene he's practicing." It happened a lot, and he hoped Jimmi would understand.

            The other man was about to say something, when his eyes focused behind Tim with a worried expression. He suddenly realized that the lunch room had gone quiet. "Aw crap."

            Tim slowly turned to see Shawn standing there white as a ghost. Dulé had probably left out the other door when they were done, and he hadn't noticed it because he'd been talking. With no one around to keep Shawn engaged, he'd turned and probably noticed Jimmi instantly.

            Shawn's breathing quickened and he looked completely distraught. His eyes moved back and forth between Tim, who was currently wishing to be hit by a bus, and Jimmi who looked extremely concerned for his friend's well being.

            "Wha−"

            " _James_ look, _Jimmi_ came to _visit_ the _set_." Tim hoped he was getting through to Shawn, trying to push him to remember that where he was, Mary Lightly's death had just been an act.

            Jimmi approached Shawn, hand extended in their usual greeting. Shawn took it and looked down at the firm, very un-Mary-like, handshake. Jimmi slapped him on the back good naturedly. "Hey, how's the episode going? I was in the area and wanted to stop and say hi."

            It was probably the handshake that shook him out of his stupor. Mary's was delicate and weird, more like he'd expected the back of his hand to be kissed, rather than shaken. "Hey...Jimmi." Shawn said slowly.

            Tim pursed his lips because he knew what that meant. The situation was too awkward and Shawn _hated_ awkward situations. It is probably the reason that, despite being _different_ himself, he tended to avoid other socially awkward people. Mary Lightly, Whip Chatterly and many others they put in the show were just too _uncomfortable_ for Shawn to be around, despite the fact that they probably could have been good friends if he tried hard enough. Steve Franks had wanted it that way, so Tim figured he was right on the money with his assumption.

            Steve took that moment to bound into the lunch room with his usual fervor and clapped his hands, getting their attention. "Alright guys! Let's go!" It took him a moment to realize who they were talking to. "Oh, Jimmi. Hiiiii..." The tall man said just as slowly as Shawn had.

            "Hi? HI!? Jeez you people!" Shawn angrily whirled on Steve and pointed at him. "You just have to keep rubbing my nose in this stuff don't you?"

            Shawn was finally going to blow. Tim winced and braced for the verbal explosion of ridiculous comparisons and random thoughts. However, Jimmi saved them at the last minute.

            "James, Maggie was worried about you." Shawn paused mid yell looking stunned, "She wanted me to drop by and see how you were doing." Jimmi looked lost at Shawn's outburst.

            Shawn's eyes flicked to Tim and Steve, probably finally realizing that they hadn't brought "Mary" here just to mess with him and it had actually been James' girlfriend being genuinely worried about him. Taking a deep breath, he reigned in his hanger. "Sorry buddy, I'm just not having the best day."

            The smile finally came back to Jimmi's face. "Hey, that's okay man I understand. Did you want to go get some food or something?"

            Tim, knowing that would be probably too much for Shawn to handle at the moment, butted in. "Sorry, we have a scene to shoot first but we're headed to Joey's later if you want to join us."

            "Sure! I'll be in town for the day. Catch you then." Jimmi turned to Shawn. "Feel better okay?"

            Shawn nodded and watched as Jimmi turned around to leave. The pained and haunted look came back to his eyes and he turned his back to them, wiping his nose.

            Catching the situation was becoming uncomfortable, Steve grabbed Shawn and Tim by the shoulders and ushered them towards the parking lot, "Guys let's go! We have a lot to do and I don't know about you but I'm dying to know more about Shawn."

            The praise caused Shawn's mood to brighten somewhat, as Steve knew it would. They'd probably be hearing more about this later, but if anything, Shawn was good at pushing his emotions out of the way when it came to his work.

            They all piled into the car, Tim in the driver's seat, heading the fifteen minutes to the restaurant. The whole way Shawn and Steve compared notes on Shawn's life and script ideas that never came to pass. Unsurprisingly, they weren't all that different.

            Steve's voice rose an octave and he let out a gleeful laugh when Shawn told them that they _actually had_ gone undercover in a strip club, reminiscent of Steve's Boogie Nights themed episode that was too risqué for the network to ever agree to air.

            As the car rolled up to the Red Robin, Tim saw that all the cameras were set up for shooting the scene. He wondered how much shooting they'd actually _do_ once Shawn accosted the actor playing the episode's killer, Ben Stern, and accused the man of stranding him in a parallel universe.

            Sure enough, Shawn hopped out as soon as the car stopped and he looked around. It took only a couple of seconds he found and locked eyes with the man, who was completely oblivious of their mission to interrogate him.

            "Hey!" Shawn shouted as he headed straight for him.

            " _Shawn! Stop!_ " Tim hissed and lunged to grab him, but was unable to snag his shirt before he crossed the parking lot. "Damn it!" He didn't want Shawn getting in any trouble while he was here. The universe didn't bend to him like in his world, and there was no telling what might happen to him here.

            Seizing the moment, Steve nudged the camera man and nodded in the direction Shawn was walking. Apparently he didn't want to miss the opportunity to get some of this on film. Tim didn't blame him, he _was_ shooting an episode after all.

            When the actor finally noticed Shawn's approach, he smiled. "Hey, James right? I'm Greg Sands, nice to finally meet you."

            Shawn pushed the man's hand away, "You and your handshake can suck it!" Tim heard Shawn hiss angrily.

            _Oh man, no..._ He could have kicked himself for not remembering that when mad, Shawn hadn't an ounce of subtlety. True to form, Shawn whipped out the necklace and dangled it in front of Greg while wrinkling his nose in disgust. "Care to comment _GREG?_ "

            Greg's eyes widened as he saw Shawn's look and the necklace, putting two and two together. If they had any doubts that the man didn't know anything and that the necklace was just a necklace, they were shattered when he turned heel and took off.

            "Son of a _bitch!_ " Tim shouted and sprinted off after Shawn who'd taken off after the fleeing actor. He took a couple strides before remembering that he was still dressed as Carlton Lassiter, and that Steve was probably still filming, inadvertently getting the chase he'd scripted for the scene.

            _Great._ Tim thought as he pumped his long legs faster to catch up with Shawn and Greg, _My life has become an episode of Psych._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Magic Amethyst for the idea of sticking James' friends in there to mess with Shawn's head.
> 
> Writing Gus having a bad day is like kicking a puppy, but it's something Shawn would totally do and it was shamelessly fun.


	10. It's All Part of the Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James figures out more about the necklace, and Shawn gets found out by an unexpected bystander.

**Chapter 10- It's All Part of the Plan**

            James and Gus stood inside the interrogation room looking through the glass at the disheveled murderer currently being grilled by Juliet and Carlton. James was trying hard not to look to his right. Really really hard. Because when he did he saw Henry Spencer completely ignoring the interrogation glaring directly at him, silently demanding the answers that James had promised him earlier but hadn't delivered on.

            In the interrogation room, Carlton had positioned himself in front of the man and read from a clip board, flipping through the pages. "Mr. Stern, you are being detained here on charges of three accounts of murder and one account of..." The detective trailed off as he read the paper. "Grand theft _cell phone?_ " Carlton whirled on the mirror. "Damn it Guster! A cell phone isn't grand theft!"

            Gus indignantly snorted and hit the speaker button. "It's a company phone Lassie!"

            "That still doesn't make it−" He pinched the bridge of his nose and turned back to Stern. "Three accounts of murder."

            Tsking Gus gave up and leaned against the far wall of the viewing room. James saw him glance over at him, brow furrowed in concentration and confusion. "Do you even know this guy?"

            James frowned and shook his head. "I've never seen him before. He doesn't even look like the actor we hired to play the villain." Besides the hair color, there was nothing at all similar to the picture he'd been shown. "This guy almost looks homeless."

            It was true, this man was dirty, smelly and his eyes spoke of desperation. They were wild and unpredictable. James watched as Carlton started his intimidation tactic and wondered if even an officer was safe in a room with a man who obviously had nothing to lose.

            Gus nodded, agreeing. "You said everything is the same when you do an episode, if that's true, why isn't this?"

            Shrugging, he turned back to the interrogation. "I don't know. The stuff that happened to you, the confrontation... things seem to be," James tried to find the right word, " _diverting_ from what I remember." It was diverting quite a bit, but he hadn't wanted to tell Gus just in case he was wrong.

            "Alright!" The shout made both James and Gus flinch. James slowly turned and came face to face with an irate Henry Spencer. "All this talk about episodes and knowing what's going to happen. I've had enough. You two tell me what's going on right now, before I go into that room and tell those two you've been hiding details about this case.

            James turned to Gus, "He'd do that?!"

            "You know that's right."

            With a heavy sigh, James turned around and rubbed his face. "Okay Henry, what do you want to know?"

            "You said you weren't my son, then who exactly are you?"

            "That's fair." James pursed his lips and nodded, "Well, my name is James and..."

            "He plays Shawn on a TV show in an alternate dimension."

            James smacked himself on the head. "GUS! I thought we were going to break it to him _gently_."

            "You didn't break it to me gently!"

            "You tried to hit me with your pharmaceutical case!"

            "Because I thought you were a body snatcher."

            "And that's so much more believable than an actor from a different dimension!"

            " _Alternate_ dimension."

            James paused and took a calming breath, "Whatever, I can’t do this with you right now."

            Henry moved in between them, "Would you two _stop it!_ ”

James shut up and looked at Henry with wide eyes. _Wow, he really does have a presence._

“Okay,” Henry rubbed his head and seemed to calm down. “Tell me from the top. How exactly did you get here, and why does that man want this necklace of yours?”

            Taking a deep breath, James tried to explain without sounding like a nut job. "I got here about a day ago. Once Gus got on board, we started trying to figure out how it happened, then the murderer started killing more people, and Gus got kidnapped−"

            "Fake kidnapped." Gus interjected.

            "−and that man told me I had to trade the necklace for Gus. I had to get some help. You pretty much know the rest." James lowered his voice. "You can't tell anyone else. As far as they know, I'm Shawn. If they find out, it could be... well I don't know what it could be, but it won't be good. I know that for sure."

            Henry frowned, "Okay, say I believe you. Where’s Shawn then?"

            "Near as I can tell, he's back where I'm from."

            "But you don't know that for sure."

            James shook his head. "No I don't, but the man in that room does. If he’s been knocking people off to get this necklace it must be pretty important to him. I think..." He paused, not for any specific dramatic effect, but mostly because he didn't want to make any hasty assumptions. The man did at least make it sound like he knew from experience. "I think he may be from my side."

            Gus and Henry were silent, taking in the new information. James didn't blame them. Dimension hopping people, more than just him was a game changer.

            The door to the observation room opened and Carlton poked his head in. "Spencer, he said he wants to speak to you. God knows why."

            "Alright Lass, be there in a second." James turned to Gus, "You coming too? After all, he is the one who _fake kidnapped_ you." He chided.

            "Oh yeah, I'm going to get my pound of flesh from him for taking my cell phone, and poking a gun in my side. I think I have a bruise." Gus rubbed the side of his stomach for effect.

            James stopped, "You never told me he pulled a gun on you."

            "It was right when he knocked me over. I fought him off like a man though, and he just took my cell phone and ran I guess."

            Gus seemed too nonchalant for almost getting shot, and James started to feel bad that he and Shawn had guns pulled on them so much, it barely phased them anymore. "Well, glad you're okay." James stated as they walked into the interrogation room.

\---------------------------------------

            "Get back here you dirty son of a bitch!" Shawn hollered as he raced after Greg. The look on his face as soon as Shawn dropped the bombshell with the necklace was all the proof he needed to know that whoever this guy was, he knew what the necklace did. If he knew what the necklace did, chances are he knew how to _undo_ it.

            After two blocks, Greg made a sharp turn around a building and Shawn was afraid he was going to lose him. As soon as he rounded the corner however, he saw Tim with his prop gun raised and aimed right at Greg. "Freeze."

            Greg halted in his tracks, but glared at Tim. "What the? That's not even real!"

            "Stopped you didn't it?" Tim smirked and grabbed Greg harshly by the arm.

            Shawn slowed, panting heavily. "Damn your... long legs."

            "What happened to the plan of _talking_ to him?" Tim chastised.

            _Seriously?_ Shawn thought exasperatedly, still gasping for breath. "Fine, you get dropped into a parallel universe and see if you can rationally talk to the man that helped put you there!"

            Tim rolled his eyes, "Well, at least let me know next time! Everyone is probably right behind us too. You better make this a fast interrogation."

            "Crap." Shawn hadn't thought of that. "Alright Jack, you are going to tell me right now what this necklace does, and how to get home!"

            Greg cringed, "Look man, I don't want to see that thing ever again. I thought giving it away would work! I don't want to go back!"

            Tim and Shawn looked at each other with raised eyebrows. "What do you mean 'go back?' Are you telling me you're from Shawn's side?"

            Greg slumped. "Yeah. I am."

            _Oh my God I might just be able to get home!_ Shawn hoped. He'd get to see Juliet again, and Gus, and his dad, and Carlt... Juliet. "How can I get back then? Is this a two way street or am I stuck here?"

            "Shawn..." Tim tried to get his attention.

            Shawn ignored Tim, choosing instead to continue his rant. "It's not like anyone really wants me here anyway, and this James guy seems to be completely whacked. I mean, who puts their friends in their TV show just to kill them off?"

            " _Shawn_..."

            "I don't think..." Greg started but Shawn interrupted him too.

            "Sure it's nice to be famous and all," Shawn frowned deep in thought, "but this whole life, imitating art, imitating life, imitating _me,_ is just too much to−"

            "SHAWN!" Tim almost shouted.

            "What?!" Shawn said exasperatedly, turning around to face Tim, but instead of just Tim... Maggie was standing there too. He sighed and closed his eyes. "She heard everything didn't she?"

            "Yep." Tim popped the P just for sarcastic effect.

            "James why is Tim calling you Shawn? And why are you attacking another actor?" Maggie narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Jimmi said you were acting weird, but this..." She trailed off.

            Tim tried to take the initiative, "Maggie, we may want to−" One look silenced his protests.

            "Tim, could you give us a moment?" The sweetness in Maggie's voice was offset by her demeanor, which was tense.

            Shawn lowered his eyes innocently as Tim grabbed Greg and dragged him towards Steve who was just running up with a few of the security guards. As he passed Shawn he whispered, _"I'll see what I can find out. Good luck."_

            Finally alone, Maggie's expression softened slightly and worry replaced anger. "James, what is going on? You've been off since yesterday. Is there something going on?"

            "Nooooooo...."

            "James David Rodriguez you tell me what the hell is going on right now!" Maggie demanded.

            Flinching, Shawn backed up. He hated it when Juliet was mad at him. Maggie might not actually be Juliet, at that moment there was no difference. For as smooth as he usually was Juliet was the only one who'd ever been able to make him lose his mojo, and it seemed that the ability transcended realities as well. Out of habit and stress, Shawn started babbling, "I'm sorry, I didn't... what I mean is...It−it wasn't my fault!"

            Maggie's brow furrowed, "What isn't your fault?"

            Shawn let out an exasperated sigh, "Me being here, instead of James. I know I've been distant, but I can't be around you. It's too confusing, and you aren't Jules."

            "Not Jules? James _what_ are you talking about?"

            He put a hand to his head, but dropped it right away. "Damn it! He probably knows everything about you." Realizing his normal tactic wouldn't work, he decided to take drastic measures.

            _Don't kill me for this Jules._

            Shawn reached out and grabbed Maggie around the waist, dipping down and giving her a big kiss.

            Maggie was into the kiss for a moment, before she started pushing him back by his shoulders. He immediately complied with her need for space, and stood nervously as she put a hand to her lips and felt where he had kissed her. "You aren't James."

            He breathed a sigh of relief. It was a risky move, but if they'd been in a relationship as long as she said they had, telling her everything about her wouldn't work. So he figured he'd use that knowledge and hope she'd notice that his kiss was different.

            Apparently she did, and Shawn had little time to react when her hand shot out and smacked him in the face. The force of the blow whipped his head around and he gripped his injured cheek protectively. "OW! Hey!"

            "You!" Maggie pointed at Shawn, moving forward and backing him into the wall behind him. "Who the hell are you?"

            "Shawn Spencer − And I think you broke my face!"

            "Man up, I didn't hit you that hard." Maggie rolled her eyes. "And you actually think I'm going to believe that ridiculous statement? C'mon son!"

            _Did she just say c'mon son?_ "Look, I was just trying to show you the only way I could."

            "By kissing me?!"

            "Well how else!?"

            Maggie threw her hands in the air exasperatedly, "I don't know! Maybe showing me a tattoo or something!" She shook her head and started walking away. "I can't believe I'm having a conversation about this."

            "Wait stop!" Shawn grabbed her by the arm but let go instantly, hoping he wouldn't get hit again. "How about this!" He pulled the right side of his shirt up, showing an appendectomy scar. "I got this two years ago."

            "Half the world has those, and James had his three years ago. It proves _nothing._ "

            Shawn was at a loss. Suddenly Shawn had an idea. His frown disappeared and he jumped up and down excitedly. "I got it!"

            Shawn couldn't believe he'd never thought about it. Well, he knew why he didn't think about it before. While being his most "manly" scar, it was the one he'd done his best to block out. Pulling down his collar on his left side, he showed her his bullet wound. "I bet James doesn't have this baby!" He grinned and lowered his voice. "And I'm pretty sure you know who _does_."

            Maggie's mouth dropped open in disbelieving shock. She stepped forward and reached out a hand, touching it. "That isn't makeup."

            "No, it isn't." Shawn did his best to keep the malice from his voice. _Makeup? Seriously?!_

            "Last night, when you walked out on the fans. They were talking about−" She didn't finish. "Oh no. I sent Jimmi to see you!" She must have seen the look on his face and realized her mistake, so she changed the subject. "Tim knows?" Shawn nodded.

            Maggie put a hand to her head, "How is this happening? This is impossible... WAIT! If you're Shawn, where's James?"

            "It's a long story. It almost requires at least two hours and a giant bucket of popcorn covered in buttery goodness. I'll be happy to tell you as long as you don't slap me again."

            "As long as you don't try to kiss me again." Maggie countered before growling in frustration and picking up her pace back to the set. "Tim is getting his ass _so_ kicked for not telling me."

\---------------------------

            Gus didn't know what to expect from the cuffed man in front of them. If he really was from James' side of things he'd had a hard road since arriving. The man's appearance was nothing compared to his smell. Days old BO and refuse clogged Gus' super sniffer and he did his best not to gag. No one else seemed to notice much, but Juliet had been wrinkling her nose.

            The guy's eyes seemed crazy too. He eyeballed James in a really creepy way, Then, Gus realized he wasn't eyeing James, he was tracking the necklace James was holding in his hand.

            Juliet moved to stand by James. Carlton re-entered as well and stood watching the murderer for any weaknesses, or so Gus thought by the intense glare he was currently exuding.

            "Oh look, it's the pretty boy." Stern sneered. "You all tough now with your cop friends? You think they'd still be your friends if they knew who you really were?"

            Gus looked at James and his eyes were darting to the detectives. To anyone with any law enforcement training, it made him seem suspiciously guilty, or at least really worried about something.

            "Shawn, what's going on? Do you know this man?" Juliet asked.

            "No way," James answered truthfully, "I've never seen him before today."

            "Then what is he talking about," Carlton scoffed, "and why is he calling you 'pretty boy?'"

            James frowned and glared at Stern, as he continued goading him, "Yeah, tell him _Shawn._ "

            Stepping forward, James got as close as he dared, showing him the necklace. "Damn it! Were you the one who brought this here? The one that sold the necklace to the shop owners?"

            Stern gave James a disturbing smile, "I told them to give the necklace back. I was just trying to get what was mine." He leaned in close, whispering. " _You know you're never getting home right? You can only use the necklace once."_

            "YOU SON OF A..." James shouted, clearly getting more upset by the sly way the man was toying with him. He gripped the necklace tight and stormed out as Stern kept laughing.

            Gus caught the confused looks Juliet and Carlton exchanged and followed James out to the hallway, the interrogation room door slamming behind him. "James, stop!"

            The actor, his back rigid in anger turned to face Gus. " _What."_

            "We'll figure something out. You can't believe that guy. I mean look at him!"

            James looked towards the door and he sagged in defeat. "Gus, if he knew a way to get back, don't you think he would have done it?"

            Gus didn't have much to say about that one. Stern looked like ten tons of bad road and seemed to be doing everything he could to get the hell out, like grabbing the necklace even after he said you can only use it once. With a sigh, he put a hand on James' back. It always comforted Shawn, and he hoped it would James too.

            James let out a shaky breath. "Man, I just want to go home."

            "You can." Gus looked up and saw Henry there, he'd apparently come out of the observation room without them seeing.

            "What? You heard him. You can only use the necklace once, ergo... I'm stuck." James looked at the floor. "I'm never going to see Maggie, my mom, my dad, or my sister again."

            _Oh man... don't you dare..._ It only took one sniff from James before Gus completely lost it. He really couldn't help it. He just imagined how it would feel to never see his family again and− "Eeeehhhhh..." He squinted his eyes as tears began to flow down his face.

            "Would you two stop the pity party and actually think!" Henry yelled over Gus' wails. Gus was still sniffling and James raised his eyes from the floor, waiting for an explanation. "He said you can only use the necklace once. There are two aren't there?"

            Both men slowly looked at each other, finally coming to the same realization as Henry. "You mean, the reason Stern was coming after the necklace is because it is the one he hadn't used?" James asked.

            "Exactly." Henry smiled smugly. "In order to get home, he had to wait till someone brought the other one over, right?"

            The theory seemed sound to Gus, as sound as something could when talking about a situation more confusing than an episode of Quantum Leap. "So how is he going to get the other necklace? Shawn must have it, and he can't use it." Gus doubted that Shawn would give up his necklace, thinking it was his only life line back home too.

            James put a finger to his lips and smiled. "I know how. We give it to Stern. Let him switch back."

            Gus stared at him in shock. "What? How can you say that! He's a murderer and he'll get away! Look man, I know you want to get home, but do you really want to loose a killer while you are at it?"

            "No Gus, listen! If he goes over to the other side, his counterpart, will come back to this side with the other necklace. I've been thinking and the actor who plays Stern in the episode, is probably the same dude."

            "But you said you didn't recognize him."

            "You know, all we see when we hire people are damn glamour shots. Put weeks of grime and a bad haircut on him and I'm sure they're the same person. If they're the same person, then Stern in there will pop back at the set. Ideally."

            Henry sighed, "That's a lot of _ifs_ kid. How do we know that will even work?"

            James' eyes became flighty again. Gus thought he was a terrible liar. After a life time of dealing with Shawn, there was no way James could get anything by him. "What James?"

            "I've had a theory since getting here. Things aren't going the same as I remember in the script, and it has to be because of the switch." James rubbed the back of his neck, "After all that stuff happened with Gus, it wasn't so much a theory anymore."

            "Are you saying that what happened to me wasn't supposed to happen?" Gus growled. It had been one of the worst afternoons of his life, he'd be held at gunpoint and _still_ hadn't gotten anything to eat.

            "Well uh, it wasn't you that was going to be kidnapped. It was Juliet." James closed his eyes and grimaced, most likely anticipating their reactions to the news that one of Gus' best friends and Henry's _almost_ daughter-in-law was going to be held at gunpoint. Again.

            "You were going to have Juliet kidnapped! Shawn is going to kill you! He'd never let that happen!" Gus wanted to punch James then and there. Apparently by the look on Henry's face, he wanted to do ten times more than that.

            James backed away from both of them,"You're right, Shawn wouldn't let Juliet get kidnapped. Think about it, didn't what happened to Gus seem really over the top? Look at him! He's a perfectionist!"

            Gus shrugged and nodded, agreeing.

            "Dropping food, forgetting the keys to his _company car_ , and all the other things that happened."

            Gus thought about it. It was really unlike him to do any of those things. It was like fate lined up to kick him in the ass over and over. "Oh my God! That was Shawn!"

            "Right! Shawn must have changed the script. There's no other explanation."

            "Why would he do that to me?" Gus knew Shawn was a prankster, but putting him in harms way?

            "You ended up fine didn't you? You weren't even really injured." Henry pointed out.

            Gus grit his teeth, "I'm going to kill him when I see him."

            James rolled his eyes, "Anyway, my point is, maybe we can get them a message. If all our inside jokes and improv happen here, it could work both ways."

            "Okay, say we give him the necklace." Henry started, and Gus wondered how Henry all of a sudden became part of the team. "How are we going to handle Juliet and Lassiter? They aren't going to sit around and let us give evidence to a killer."

            "We'll have to distract them. I don't think it will take long, Stern really wants to get home." James eyes sparkled with mischief. "Gus, you feel like getting a little payback?"

            _Payback?_ Gus' eyes narrowed suspiciously, but he was grinning on the inside. "What kind of payback did you have in mind?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) I figure after being crapped on so much, Gus will deserve a little revenge.


	11. Role Reversal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shawn and James figure out things aren't always as they first appear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been a long time! Sorry about that, had a lot going on and this chapter was a really hard one to write.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it. :)

**Chapter 11- Role Reversal**

**REAL:**

            Tim still had Greg by his collar when they got back to the trailer they'd had on location at the Red Robin. The "actor" had been fairly compliant so far, which worked in his favor with Tim. No reason for anyone to get hurt, he just wanted some information.

            Once in the trailer, he pushed Greg to a seat and stood over him. "Alright, first off tell me how the hell you got here."

            Greg turned his head and looked down, ashamed. "I did something I'm not too proud of." He looked back to Tim, "You have to understand, I was desperate. My wife left me, I was homeless and hungry. I went in to pawn some stuff and saw the necklace. The guy at the front desk says that it's supposed to have some sort of magic on it. I thought he was spewing bullshit, but even so, I figured it would be worth a lot of money if I nabbed it and sold it."

            Tim curled his lip. All this was going on just because a down on his luck man got greedy. Figures.

            "So then I pose as a buyer, and steal the necklace. Not three minutes later, I'm here." Greg raised his hands in a "ta-da" gesture. "A fairly well to do actor from Canada, of all places."

            "How did you know he had a job on Psych?"

            Greg shrugged, "It was on his date book, and it wasn't hard to look up where you guys were filming."

            Both men looked over at the trailer door that suddenly swung open. Shawn and Maggie walked in and Tim instantly knew he was in deep shit. "Aw, crap."

            "Don't you _dare_ Tim!" Maggie glowered at him, "Next time you hide something this big from me I will spread embarrassing stories about you and your 'bad beard days' on Twitter."

            Tim swallowed hard before replying, "Fine, next time a fictional character poses as your boyfriend, you'll be the first to know."

            Shawn stepped in, getting in between them. "Hey guys. Less fighting and more interrogating the bad guy okay?" Greg gave Shawn an indignant look at 'bad guy,' but Shawn seemed to ignore him. "What did you get out of him so far Timmy?"

            Tim rolled his eyes at the new nickname but filled the two of them in on what Greg had admitted to him. It didn't take more than a few minutes, he didn't know much about it himself, but afterwards Shawn snorted mirthfully at Greg.

            "Boy, you were handed the short straw weren't you?"

            "That's why you _can't_ make me go back!" Greg begged, "I'm sorry the actor is stuck in my place but I can't live like that. This has been the best three days of my life!"

            Shawn scrunched his brow and held up his hands. "Wait wait... you got here three days ago?" At Greg's nod Shawn's gaze tuned out and his features went slack for a moment.

            Tim watched closely, Maggie as well. They both knew what that face meant, but were surprised that Shawn really tuned out like that. The show always showed what Shawn was going back and seeing though; flashes of cases, back tracking clues. However, seeing Shawn just suddenly wink out was very unnerving to say the least.

            "Shawn?" Maggie asked, waving a hand in front of his eyes before they once again focused on the present.

            Shawn turned to Greg, ignoring Tim and Maggie's shared glance, giving him an easy smile, "Wow, it really sounds like your life used to suck dude. Ya know, we should go out for drinks sometime, being the only two people in the world that are 'visiting.'" Greg gave Shawn a puzzled expression, but before Tim could say anything Shawn grabbed him and Maggie by the arm. "Hold on a minute Greg-ster, we just need to have a bit of a chat about the next scene."

            "What?" Tim protested as he was unceremoniously pulled out of the trailer, preceded by Maggie who had to move to let them through anyway. Shawn stepped out and dragged them further away, shooting worried glances over his shoulder at the trailer. To Tim it almost looked like he was making sure Greg couldn't see or hear them.

            "Okay, what's going on?" Tim planted his feet and Shawn pursed his lips, bouncing in place nervously.

            "You know how he said he didn't get here until three days ago?"

            Tim nodded. "Look, not everyone's memory is as good as yours but I'm pretty sure I can remember something someone said two minutes ago."

            Shawn frowned at him, but continued, "Back where I'm from, before all this happened, I was able to get a good look at that murdered woman's file. Lassie and Jules found her locked in the trunk of her car, and the autopsy report said Woody had calculated the time of death had been at least four days earlier. So that means she was killed five days ago now."

            Starting to connect the dots, Tim looked worriedly at the trailer. "You mean to tell me that _he_ is the actual murderer?!"

            "Think about it!" Shawn growled, obviously frustrated they weren't getting it as fast as he was.

            _Maybe he needs reminding again that we aren't detectives._ Tim grumbled internally and looked over his shoulder at the trailer.

            Shawn continued, "The dude said he was desperate and homeless, he doesn't want to even _see_ the necklace ever again. That's probably his grain of truth." Tim caught the reference immediately, it was one of Henry's lessons. "Ergo, he'd probably be willing to murder someone who had the means to escape." Shawn grabbed Tim's head and moved his gaze back to him. "And don't look! We can't have him knowing we know."

            "How do you know he doesn't suspect we know already?" Maggie asked, getting with the program and joining in on the discussion.

            " _Because_ if he knew I was on the case before I got here, he wouldn't have claimed the woman was alive when he left. He probably would have made up something else to explain her death."

            Tim tried, _really_ tried to find any fault in Shawn's logic, but he couldn't. The irony of the situation of him trying to find logic in a situation like this wasn't lost on him either. He suddenly wondered how James, a very logical guy, was handling things on his end.

            "So what do we do? If he's the murderer he knows a lot more about the necklace then he's telling us, and if he finds out we know, it could get bad."

            Before they could get any further in the conversation, Andy Berman, the episode director ran up to them with Dulé right behind him looking extremely pumped and extremely covered in food and ice cream. Tim hadn't known the extent of Shawn's plan for Gus, but he was sure once Shawn got back he wasn't going to have a very happy best friend.

            "Man! That was fun!" The black man chirped. "Andy said we should get the station scene done while I'm still covered in goop."

            "The station scene?" Shawn looked at Tim warily.

            Rubbing the back of his neck he said, "When the killer is caught at the diner, we go back to the station and interrogate him."

            "Fine, but we have to keep an eye on him." Shawn motioned to the trailer and walked away grumbling about _stupid necklaces,_ and glancing apologetically at Maggie as he passed.

            Dulé watched him leave. "Dude, what is _with_ Roday today?"

            "You don't want to know." Tim started walking away too, but was stopped by Andy.

            "Hey Tim, we're changing a scene with you and Maggie."

            "Oh?" His eyebrows rose as he looked at the smaller man.

            "Yeah! We want Gus and Shawn to interrogate Stern, so you guys will be chasing a diversion."

            Any other time Tim would find improv fun and exciting, but this one struck him as odd. Usually when Shawn asked, Lassie would relent and just let him have a try. There had to be a reason that they were creating a diversion so they could talk to Stern alone. _"James, is that you?"_ He whispered to himself, trying to come up with an answer.

            "What?" Andy cocked his head confused.

            "Nothing." Tim said quickly. "I'm all for it! Let's get to the set and get going."

            The sun was starting to set, and he figured they had at least a few hours left if they were shooting more inside shots, and he hoped that something would come out of it. If it was James calling the shots, or at least nudging the shots, they were in for an interesting time to say the least.

 

* * *

 

**PSYCH:**

            Henry played his part well, channeling his aggression at the situation into a window shaking shout of "SHAWN!"

            James and Gus waited hidden in the interrogation viewing room as their distraction played out. As expected, Juliet and Carlton bolted out of the interrogation room at a run to find out what was happening. It left stern alone, which is exactly what James wanted. Once the coast was clear, the two men hurried out of their hiding place and slipped into the room undetected.

            They only had a few minutes before Carlton and Juliet returned. Henry was instructed to say the two of them had run off with the necklace after "Shawn" had a vision of a second killer. Once they saw the Blueberry was still there though, it wouldn't be long before they came back.

            Stern looked up when they entered, his expression surprised before it quickly got replaced by the sneering anger James had gotten used to seeing on the man's face. "What do you want?"

            James smiled and approached the table, looking innocent and grinning widely. The odd behavior caused Stern to narrow his eyes suspiciously. "So Stern, I've been thinking." James took a piece of paper out of his pocket and set it on the table and held his hand out to Gus.

            Without taking his eyes off the killer, Gus handed him a pen.

            He continued talking as he wrote, "Personally, I'm sick to death of all the little cryptic jibes, the remarks about me and going home..." James trailed off as he finished writing on the paper. "So I'm going to give you exactly what you want."

            "What?" Stern asked, obviously completely lost.

            To answer him, James pulled out the necklace and dangled it at him. The green gem glinted under the florescent lights. James instantly saw the desperate need Stern had for the _one_ thing that could get out of here.

            "So you're just letting me go?" The murderer asked disbelievingly.

            "Not quite." Gus smirked as James reached down to grab the note and hold it up in front of Stern. "We're having you take _this_ along with you."

            They gave him a moment to read the note. The note written in James' handwriting, stating that Stern was a murderer and to hold onto him until James and Shawn could switch back. James thought with any luck, they could send Stern back to this world to face justice. He didn't want the innocent guy on the other end to have to face the death penalty over this man's crimes. If they couldn't, Gus was to relate to Shawn what happened, and maybe get the guy off... somehow.

            Once the man was done reading the note, James snatched it back and smiled smugly at the stunned criminal. “Now who’s never going home.” He wasn’t usually that callous, but with the stress of the situation and the sheer frustration he felt at the murderer’s words earlier, he thought it warranted, that was, until the cold blooded killer started crying.

            Stern pitched forward with heaving sobs, putting his head on his cuffed arms.

            James was in stunned shock. He’d made the man cry? Whispering out of the side of his mouth at Gus, he asked, _“Does this kind of thing happen often?”_

            Through sniffles of his own, Gus shook his head and whispered back, _“There was this one time when we caught a culinary teacher for poisoning his students… but that could have just been the onions he was cutting when we busted him.”_

            Rolling his eyes, James stepped closer to the bawling Stern. “What the hell gives man? What happened to the 'Oh, you’re never getting home!’ blah blah blah."

            With hitched breaths, Stern whined, “I just thought it’d be all okay once I got home! I’ve barely eaten in days. Since I appeared here, I've been starved, almost killed, and arrested in only three days. Now tell me, _why_ on _earth_ wouldn't I be the least bit bitter?!”

            James and Gus turned towards each other with puzzled looks. Stern had never said anything about almost being killed in the interrogation. _Maybe I can get him to talk more._

            “Who tried to kill you?”

            Stern sneered, “That goddamn store employee tried to shoot me. He recognized me, even called me Stern. That's how I found out my double's last name. I don't even know his first one. Anyway, I went there to find out who sold the necklace to them so I could figure out a way to get home." He paused and swallowed hard, "I−I hit him on the head. I swear I didn’t mean to hit him that hard.” Stern started to turn green and Gus quickly grabbed the garbage can from the side of the room. He barely got it to the man before he lost whatever he’d been able to get in his stomach that day.

            “What kind of murderer gets sick over killing someone?” Gus asked as he backed up, giving Stern a wide berth.

            James shook his head. “I think we need more information man, we don’t have much time.” Then, an idea struck him. “Where’s Woody’s office?”

            “Just down the hall, why?”

            “Follow me!” James ran out the door, and down the hallway, with Gus on his heels.

            They burst through the doors and James’ momentum faltered when he spotted Jasmine and Marcus' dead bodies laid out next to each other on metal tables. It wouldn't have been so bad, if Woody hadn't been up to his elbow in the latter's torso. Suddenly James wished that Gus would grab him a garbage can too.

            "Hey guys!" Woody shouted happily. "I'm almost done with the autopsy. I found some interesting things out about these two."

            James was thankful that Gus realized he wasn't going to be much help in his current state, so he took the lead. "What did you find?"

            "Well, first thing I found was that these two had a diet high in fiber. Their lower intestines were phenomenal!"

            "Oh God..." James swallowed hard, trying to block out the smell and the visual of lower intestines. _How does Shawn DO this every day?_

            Looking at him concerned, Woody asked, "What's wrong with Shawn? Lunch not sitting right? I have some Maalox around here somewhere."

            As the coroner looked around for the medicine, Gus caught his attention, "I know how you feel. Just think of it as a mannequin, or something."

            "That's cold dude." James said, trying to gain his composure back.

            Shrugging, Gus looked back at the bodies. "I've had to adapt. Shawn brings us around dead bodies a lot."

            "Remind me to write that out of the next episode."

            After a moment a dejected Woody turned around with an apologetic look. "Sorry, I must have used that the last time my assistant brought me burritos. I'm not as young as I used to be." As they stared at him blankly, he seemed to remember he was going to say something about the bodies, "Oh right! I was about to say that they weren't killed at the same time. Mr. Moray was killed at least a half a day after his wife. About four days ago, give or take a few hours."

            "Wait, you're saying that the husband in the dumpster was put there _after_ Stern killed the woman. He didn't kill them both at the same time?" James asked, lost.

            Gus was catching on too, "Maybe he met with her and couldn't find the necklace because she hid it. A lot of private businesses do that. They wait till they see the money, and then bring it out."

            "Good point, Stern could have gone back after the husband told him where it was." James wished he actually was a detective, there was something he was missing and he couldn't put his finger on it.

            "OH MY GOD!" Gus exclaimed, making both Woody and James jump. "Four days! The guy we have in interrogation said three days. We've been looking at this the wrong way! Maybe the guy in the interrogation room didn't kill them for the necklace so he could get home, but the one he switched with killed them to get the necklace so he could get _out._ "

           James gave him a skeptical look. So far, all he thought happened was that Stern got stuck here, and went on a revenge killing spree for the people who put him here, or had information on how to get back. He and Shawn getting switched was probably what he'd been waiting for, a way to get back. He didn't believe the killer's sob story for one moment. “I dunno. He seems to know a lot more about the necklaces than someone who just got here.”

            "Think about it." Gus counted off with his fingers, "He said the shop employee recognized him and immediately started to shoot at him. My guess is, because his double had been hanging around, scoping out the necklace after he found out what it did. If Stern already knew what the necklace did, why would he go back to the place when he also knew the employee would suspect him of his boss' murders? The man we have in custody didn't kill these two people, just the employee in self-defense!"

            James looked at him in amazement. "Gus, did you just do the breakdown of the case?"

            Pausing for a moment Gus smiled widely, "I guess I did. Wow."

            "Exactly what kind of case are you working on?” Woody asked, obviously confused.

            James' eyes widened and he gave Gus his best _Don't you dare tell him._ look. "We think the suspect has an 'evil twin' that's out to get revenge and blame it on the 'good twin,' right Shawn?"

            Woody looked positively gleeful at the prospect of evil twins. "OH! Can I do the DNA test? I've always wanted to see what evil looks like under a microscope!"

            "We'll let you know." James was completely weirded out by the real Woody. Sure he seemed nice but even Kurt's improves didn't do the coroner's creepiness justice. Getting back with the program, James sighed and looked back at Gus. “Okay fine, we should at least talk to him again, and get some straight answers this time.”

            Gus nodded, and they headed for the door.

Suddenly, a wave of dread washed over James, stopping him in his tracks. The thought that had been swirling around in his head had finally come to the surface. _If the actor isn’t the murderer, then the murderer is there. There with Maggie!_ "Gus..." He felt like he couldn't breathe, and all the air seemed to suck out of his lungs.

            "What?"

            "The killer, he's with my friends.” _Oh God what if Shawn finds out and he kills one of them when his cover is blown.._ James would never forgive himself if that happened. “We have to get answers _now._ ”

            Gus grabbed his arm to hold him up, because it was becoming harder to stand on his own. "How are we going to do that? I hate to break it to you but Lassie and Juliet are probably on their way back to the interrogation room right now."

            "Uh, Shawn?" James looked up to see Woody trying to get his attention. "I might be able to slow them down a bit."

            "How?" James asked, trying to even out his breaths.

            With a mischievous grin, Woody answered, "Let's just say I have a lot of stuff around here that doesn't come out of suits very easily."

            "Awww yeah!" Gus exclaimed as they moved out of the way of Woody, who had grabbed some orange looking liquid that James didn't want to know the name of.

            Stopping in the doorway, Woody turned back and asked, "Do you think Lassiter is allergic to bile?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope I didn't leave anyone too confused... just a little confused is okay :)
> 
> All will be explained, but for now you get to see each side try to piece everything together.
> 
> Also, don't forget to check out Moondragon23's story, "Two Dead Guys, a Girl, and a Psychic." The dialogue and banter are just awesome.


	12. Blurred Lines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shawn figures out that James is up to something, and James sets up the reveal of the century.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting near the end everyone! Thank you so much for your patience and I appreciate your reviews so much!
> 
> I hope you guys like what I did differently in this chapter for the big reveal of the case. The title is more because of what I did for that and not because of the Thickie song, even though my husband has been playing it almost non-stop due to working on a parody of it. :P

**Chapter 12 - Blurred Lines**

**REAL:**

            Shawn drummed his fingers impatiently on the ride back to the interior sets. He was tired, stressed, and he hadn't had access to any energy drinks since the night before. Most of all, he was angry. Pissed as hell actually, that the murderer of at least two people was sitting not a foot away from him in the van. The worst part of it was; there was nothing he could do about it. Sure, he got the others to believe him, but it was only because they'd known James for years and could tell that he wasn't him.

            He sure as hell didn't want to try telling a bunch of cops that he and the killer were from a different dimension, and to arrest the other man for murder. It would either be passed off as a joke, or he'd be thrown in the loony bin again.

            It had been Tim's idea to go in the same van as the killer, mostly it was to make sure he didn't run off when they weren't looking. So far Greg, scratch that... _Stern_ seemed oblivious to their knowledge of his past misdeeds and kept trying to make friendly conversation. "So, what did you do on the other side?"

            Shawn looked up and stared at him. He wondered if he should tell the truth. It might tip him off and by the looks the others were giving him, he knew he better come up with a lie fast. Fortunately, he was well practiced at that sort of thing. "I scooped out the Santa Barbara sewers by hand. Messy work. Can never get that stuff out of your nails."

            Shawn ignored the horrified stares Maggie and Tim were giving him at the ridiculous job, because it had the desired effect of making Stern scoot further away as if Shawn could give him sewer cooties. "Oh, that's nice."

            "Was kind of funny when I got in trouble with my boss. Gives new meaning to the phrase 'in deep sh−"

            "Okay! We're here!" Maggie exclaimed and grabbed him before heading out of the van and giving him a not too gentle push and an intense glare. Shawn knew that look well. Juliet used it all the time when she was mildly frustrated with his antics.

            It was hot.

            Once outside, she'd still had a hold of his arm and he gently pulled himself out of her grip while he mentally smacked himself away from that train of thought. _Not Jules, she's not Jules._ It almost looked like she understood because her face suddenly got very red.

            Steve Franks, followed by Dulé, who had driven in another vehicle, came up and greeted them as Tim and Stern exited the van. "Guys, you wouldn't believe the footage I got of that chase! It will be great!" The Psych creator lowered his voice and leaned into Shawn, _"So what's up with this guy?"_

            Shawn didn't want to rain on Steve's parade by explaining the situation just yet, so he just smiled and clapped Stern on the shoulder, despite his attempts to flinch away. "Oh, we came to an understanding, right Greggie?"

            "Yeah sure." The other man said uncomfortably.

            Tim came in and broke up the awkward moment. "Steve, could you get the interrogation room ready? I have some stuff to discuss with James."

            "Great! I think everything should be set to go! Catch you later _James_." Steve said with a wink as he walked away.

            "That man is way too cheery for his own good."

            "Said the liar." Maggie added in, causing Shawn to raise his eyebrow. "C'mon Dulé, let's give the love birds some privacy." She winked at Tim and led the other, now laughing man off.

            "Oh, HA HA Maggie!" Tim called after her.

            Shawn turned to face Tim, even more grumpy now than he was in the car after the awkward moment with Juliet's double. _Man, if I don't get back soon I'm going to have to_ live _in a cold shower._ "What did you want?" He asked Tim impatiently.

            "I think something is about to go down."

            Rolling his eyes, Shawn replied, "Yeah, my fist down that guy's throat once I get him to confess."

            "NO! I mean I think they're trying something on the other side." Tim said excitedly. Shawn suppressed a smile, still trying to keep up his grumpiness. It was still weird to see someone with Carlton's face look so relaxed and, dare he say it, happy. "You know the scene you did with Gus and the food?"

            "Yeah, what about it?"

            "I think they're doing the same thing." Tim revealed.

            Shawn's brow furrowed, "They're going to cover me in food and have me mugged?"

            "No!...Well, not exactly. Did you hear Andy when he said that the interrogation scene changed? I think they figured Stern out too and they're changing things on their end."

            Shawn thought of all the episodes he'd breezed through the night before. As weird as it was watching your life in the third person, he had realized that things were pretty spot on. _Maybe it does work both ways_. _We affect them, they affect us._ The thought actually made him feel a lot less like a puppet, dancing on strings for people's entertainment. "Alright, what should we do? You're the expert on this whole filming thing."

            The smile Tim gave him almost creeped him out. "I'd say once we get Stern in the interrogation set we give the cameras what they want. A good reveal."

            _That's what I'm talking about._ Shawn felt his own smile and excitement grow and he bounced towards the set entrance, but not before giving Tim a smack on the chest.

            "OW! That was too hard!"

\--------------------------------------

**PSYCH:**

            "I am _so_ sorry detective. I'm sure it won't stain."

            James stifled a belly laugh as Woody kept his promise and distracted Juliet and Carlton while they snuck in to talk to Stern again.

            He almost felt sorry for the detective as he stood there, arms out, trying not to touch himself any more than necessary, with a green stain spreading down his white shirt. Juliet, who thankfully didn't get any on herself, backed up wrinkled her nose at the foul smell.

            "Strode..." Carlton growled dangerously. "You have half a second to get out of here before I decide to put you on your own metal slab!"

            With a nod, they decided it was time to go and both of them slipped back into the interrogation room unseen. Stern stared at them suspiciously as they once again approached the table, obviously still wondering if they were still going to set him up.

            "What? Going to threaten me again?"

            "Alright, say we believe you." Gus said haughtily, "But we want some answers." The cynicism slipped away from Stern's features. He almost looked hopeful. It was one more thing in the man's favor in James' opinion.

            Personally, he was on the fence about whether he wanted to believe Stern. If Stern was lying, he'd probably do anything he could to keep James from going home, and cause a lot of havoc while doing so. If he were telling the truth, that meant his friends were potentially exposed to a desperate killer. _God my life is messed up right now._

            "Okay, first off." James sat down in the chair across from him. "What's your name? I'm guessing it's not really Stern."

            "Greg Sands. Character actor." He gave them a small smile.

            "So then _Greg,_ how do you know so much about the necklace?" James questioned.

            "Because I talked to the last owner. After I..." Greg trailed off. James could only imagine it was because he wanted to avoid the subject of killing the store clerk. "After I got to the store, I started digging around, trying to see if I could find the consignment slip, or a bill of sale for the necklace. Something, anything that could have helped me figure out what the hell happened."

            Remembering the slip they'd found attached to Gus' shoe, James pulled the blood splattered receipt out of his pocket. With everything going on, he'd completely forgotten he'd put it there the night before after wrapping it in a loose wrapper he'd found in the blueberry.

            "Oh my God, you kept that in your _pocket_?" Gus looked at him, horrified.

            "It's wrapped Gus." James rolled his eyes before unfolding the paper and showing it to Greg, "This receipt says Marsha Kingsley. Is that who you talked to?"

            Stern nodded, "I wrote down her address and went to go see her."

            James' brow furrowed in confusion, "Why didn't you just take the paper?"

            "Probably because it was covered in blood." Gus added smugly from the peanut gallery.

            " _Would you shut up about the blood!?"_ James hissed, but the smirk didn't disappear from Gus' features. "What did she say?"

            "As soon as I mentioned the necklace, she tried to slam the door in my face saying she already told me everything I wanted to know about it."

            "That explains how the real Stern found out about the necklace." James stated and Gus nodded in agreement as Greg continued.     

            "I put my foot in the door and she realized I wasn't the same guy. She then told me that necklace was a curse. She'd been switched for _two years_ before she got back." Stern admitted with a depressed sigh.

            The day before James thought that maybe the killings had been over how expensive the necklace was and how little this Marsha got paid. Now he could see she'd wanted to be rid of the necklace probably for the same reason they had. It had been nothing but trouble. _Random dimension hopping tends to do that to people._ James could relate to how she felt though. The thought of being stuck without Maggie for two weeks, let alone two years would be unbearable. Especially with Gus running interference between him and Juliet, the next closest thing to her.

            "She said that you can never use the same necklace twice. She'd tried. She found out by complete accident how to switch back using the other necklace once someone else switches. She then sold the necklace, hoping to never see it again." Greg finished his story with a shrug. "That's about all I know."

            Gus cocked his head and pursed his lips. "Did she say where she got it from in the first place?"

            "She threw me out before I could ask her." He added with a shrug. "That's when I figured I'd try to get the necklace back."

            Gus glared, "You didn't have to tackle me."

            "I didn't know if you would give it up willingly." He looked at James, "I figured if I had a hostage, and acted crazy, you'd bring the necklace and I could figure out how get home. I didn't know the same thing happened to you until you showed up at the restaurant."

            James bit his lip. Everything sounded pretty legit, and explained a lot of the weirdness they'd been experiencing in the timeline. If it were just _him_ that had been switched, James figured things would have gone a lot more according to the script. Since it had been Greg mucking things up too, things had gone even more out of whack. He shuddered to think of the impromptu rewrites the others must be experiencing.

            With a reluctant huff, James looked at Gus. "I believe him."

            Greg's shoulders seemed to sag in relief. "What do we do now? I don't want to go to jail!"

            "I have a plan." James explained, "It's a doozie and if this necklace makes things fall into place, we just might be able to get home sooner than we thought."

\---------------------------------------

**REAL:**

            Tim rubbed his chest with a sour expression. He now knew how Dulé felt when James and him would go all out with their slap fights. It _really_ stung.

            He'd followed Shawn into the building, then had to lead them to the interrogation room set. Everyone else was already there and Stern was getting some finishing touches put on his dirt make up.

            One of the make up artists stopped him with an apologetic look. "Andy said to put this on you for the interrogation scene. Once Kurt gets here, we'll have him splash it on you again, but we need it now." She must have seen his reluctance when she added, "Don't worry, I made it smell nice."

            Tim saw it was a bunch of vile looking, green goop. Probably what had been the distraction Andy mentioned. Once he thought of the reaction it would probably get from Carlton, he was more than willing to put it on. "Lay it on me." As she backed up and splashed it on him, he saw Dulé, just as messy from his own garbage digging scene, grinning wickedly. "Suck it Dulé."

            A minute later, he finally joined Maggie, Andy, and Steve who were sitting behind the cameras. Steve gave him a wide grin and a thumbs up. Beyond being tickled pink that the show he'd created was real, Steve had no idea how much danger they were all in with Stern here. _If this goes down like I think it will, I'll have a lot to explain to him when this is over._

            "Alright guys! Get into position!" Andy called in the room.

            Shawn turned and met his eyes for a moment with a worried expression. Tim nodded encouragingly, hoping he wasn't wrong. He had faith that James would figure something out, and that Shawn would come through too.

            Maggie was apparently feeling some apprehension as well. She leaned in and whispered, _"You think this is really going to work?"_

            Tim almost forgot that it was her boyfriend involved in this too, and after working with her for so many years, much like Carlton and Juliet, they were able to pick up on each other's moods easily. Tim could tell she missed James, and wanted him back.

            "I hope so. It's worth a shot right?"

            She nodded, and as Andy yelled "ACTION!"

            "What are you doing back here?" Stern said with a sour expression. He was very convincing, but Tim wondered how good you actually had to be to play yourself.

            Dulé glared at Stern. The garbage still covering him added a lot of humor to what would have been a tense moment.

            Shawn leaned on the table and motioned with his head toward Dulé. "My associate Strawberry Fields and I don't think you've been very honest with us Mr. Stern 'No Last Name.'"

            "Uh, Stern _is_ his last name Shawn."

            "I've heard it both ways."

            The people behind the camera had to hold in their snickers to not ruin what, to them, was going to be a very good shot.

            Shawn continued, "We believe that you are a cold blooded murderer of not one, _not two_..." Shawn held up a hand with three fingers, "But _tres_ people."

            Tim shared a knowing glance with Maggie and wondered how Shawn would take knowing that James often threw random Spanish into scenes because he was half Mexican, and proud of his heritage, rather than just being goofy like him.

            Dulé jumped in with his part. "You had your eye on the necklace for a long time." Shawn punctuated the other man's words with a dramatic point at the necklace he'd taken out and held up. "And came up with the perfect plan to get it."

            Stern looked nervous being so close to the necklace, but kept it together. "You have no proof. Just a stupid necklace and your word _psychic_."

            Anyone else would have been worried, but Shawn grinned widely. "Oh, really? I think I have more than that Stern. You told us your little sob story, but only part of it was true. The part where you said you'd do anything to get off the streets. Does that include murder too?"

            Greg's eyes narrowed. Shawn could tell he was wondering if this were part of the script, or if he actually knew about him killing those people.

            He put a hand to his head and closed his eyes. "You lured Jasmine out, saying you were going to finally buy the necklace you'd been ogling for weeks. You probably even offered to pay her more than the steep price they were selling the rare stone for."

            That was Tim and Maggie's cue, as if they'd heard everything they walked into the interrogation room with contemptuous looks at Stern. It wasn't hard for them, knowing that everything Shawn was accusing him of had actually happened.

            Stern started to break character, he looked around at everyone confused. "That isn't..."

\----------------------------------

**PSYCH:**

            "...TRUE!" Greg yelled desperately.

            "You saw your chance, and when she had her back turned to you...WHOP!" James made a swinging motion and staggered back as if hit. "She went down and you just kept hitting her."

            Carlton's lip curled and Juliet stared forward, glaring angrily.

            "Afterwards, you realized that she'd hidden the necklace and you couldn't find it. She didn't trust you as far as she could throw you. You probably tore apart the whole car but you _still_ couldn't find it."

            Gus grinned, the plan was working out perfectly. They'd spent a few minutes getting Greg caught up on what they wanted to do, and he was more than willing to play his part if it meant he might get home. Now, he could feel something was happening, almost like a tingle that urged him on and he decided to jump in too. "Then, you remembered someone who could find it,−"

\--------------------------------------

**REAL:**

            "−her husband!" Dulé punctuated his line with a dramatic point at Stern.

            Shawn held up a finger, "He was only one person left who knew where she could have hidden it."

            With a glance at the people in the room, and seeing the surprise on the directors' faces, Stern must have finally realized this wasn't part of the script, or even improv on Shawn's part. It was entrapment. Shawn saw the killer was beginning to realize just how hosed he really was.

            "You eventually got what you wanted out of him, but he would go to the police if you let him go. It may have started out as an accident, but what's one more body after that right? You were already screwed. Plus, you had a get out of jail free card." He leaned forward, the necklace dangling right in Stern's face. "This beauty."

            Right then, Stern's eyes changed from confused actor, to cold blooded murderer. The jig was finally up.

\--------------------------------------

**PSYCH:**

            James kept the necklace out, as they'd specified in the plan. Greg kept his eyes on it, waiting for Gus' signal. "The store clerk was just some poor schmuck who got in your way when you were trying to find out what else you could pilfer now that both of them were dead. He recognized you, and became yet another loose end to tie up." They'd agreed that Greg hadn't meant to kill the store clerk, so they'd peg that murder on Stern too.

            "I just wanted out!" Greg yelled dramatically. "I didn't want to be hungry, cold and alone anymore. How is that so bad?"

\-------------------------------

**REAL:**

            "It isn't bad, until you have to kill for it." Tim growled and Maggie nodded. Tim then cautiously went over and unlocked the cuffs that connected him to the table. "C'mon, we have a nice cold cell with your name on it." He feared something was wrong. Stern was still Stern, and the murderous look he was currently getting was enough to make even hardened cops hesitate. Not to mention middle aged actors.

            Sure enough, as soon as the cuffs were disconnected from the table, Stern shouldered Tim out of the way and Maggie was too far away to stop him. Now, the only ones between the killer and the door were Shawn Spencer and Dulé Hill.

\-----------------------------

**PSYCH:**

            As soon as Carlton had freed his hands, Greg elbowed him and ran for the exit, snatching the necklace that James just _happened_ to still have extended out in his hand. He winked and Greg bum rushed straight towards Gus, who was ready for what he had to do.

\---------------------------------------

**REAL:**

            As Stern passed, Shawn got in his path just enough to be pushed out of the way, but not before the man instinctively wrapped his fingers around what the psychic had thrust into his hands before being knocked away.

            The necklace.

            "Flambé! Get him!" Shawn shouted a warning to the actor who was in the way of a now crazed murderer. He still wasn't sure if this was going to work, but he hoped it would now that Stern knew they knew about him.

            Finally realizing that something was amiss, Dulé braced himself for the impact−

\--------------------------------------------

**PSYCH:**

            −and Gus planted his feet, which caught Stern off guard in the small space, slamming him hard to the floor, dazed. Gus leaned over the stunned killer with a large grin. "Payback _sucker_."

            Both James and Gus knew for sure that it was no longer Greg laying on the ground, because the plan had been for the actor to stop right before hitting Gus as a way to tell if it worked or not. Stern, not knowing that part, had literally run straight into their trap.

            James let out a relieved laugh of triumph. It had worked. It had really worked! He would get to go home. Reaching over, he fist bumped Gus, and each did a little dance of triumph. It felt really good. _Maybe I should do this more often._

            Carlton looked at the pair like they were completely nuts as he nursed his injured shoulder while he reached down and cuffed Stern. "What the hell is wrong with you two?"

            "Nothing Lassie." James smiled and stopped dancing. "Just glad we were able to catch the bad guy."

            "But we always catch the bad guy Shawn." Juliet said, just as confused as her partner over their odd behavior.

            "Exactly Jules." James said as he caught Stern's eye. " _Exactly._ "

\-------------------------------------------

**REAL:**

            Tim looked up in time to see that Greg skidded to a halt right before he hit Dulé, who was wincing and holding his hands out. He was breathing heavily, and looked around at the cameras with a smile. "YES!" He shouted and hugged the unsuspecting black man. "I'm HOME!"

            "CUT!" Andy yelled, stopping the cameras.

            Dulé's eyes widened in surprise. "Why is this dude hugging me?"

            "Just go with it." Shawn patted him on the shoulder as he walked by and leaned over to help Tim off the floor. "You okay buddy?"

            Not too bad off, but still sore Tim groaned as he was pulled to his feet. "Nothing two months of physical therapy won't cure."

            Greg let go of Dulé and looked at Shawn. "James says hi." He then presented the necklace.

            Tim thought the younger man would grab it right away, but he didn't. Instead he looked around at the people who'd helped him. Maggie, Steve, and himself. "Um, can you give me a minute?"

            Surprised, Greg nodded and stepped back with the necklace, giving him his space as Andy approached him, applauding his superb acting skills.

            Shawn licked his lips. "Listen, I appreciate the help you guys gave me. I know I haven't been the easiest person to get along with."

            Tim and Steve snorted mirthfully at the same time.

            "Hey! I'm baring my feelings here!" Shawn said indignantly.

            "It's not that. We know you Shawn. We understand." Steve said sympathetically. "By the way, who's that?" Steve pointed at Greg.

            Sharing a look with Maggie, Tim explained, "It's a long story, we'll tell you later."

            Steve nodded. "Fair enough."

            " _Anyway_." Shawn interrupted, bringing the attention back to himself, "Thanks for everything." He gave Tim and Steve a group hug before approaching Maggie. "Maggs, it just wouldn't work out between us. We're from different worlds and you seem like the kind of person that will hog the sheets at night. I need my space, and blankets. No hard feelings?"

            Maggie gave him an endearing smile, knowing he was joking to clear up the awkwardness they'd been feeling since she found out. "Just be good to Juliet okay? She loves you a lot."

            Pursing his lips, he nodded and looked up. "Yo Greg! Necklace me!"

            Greg turned and tossed the necklace the short distance to him and Shawn reached out to catch it.

\----------------------------------

**PSYCH:**

            Both Carlton and Juliet hauled Stern out of the room, kicking and screaming about how he didn't belong here and it wasn't his fault. Before they got too far away, Gus had the presence of mind to grab the necklace out of his hands, but not before slapping him with a still ketchup covered sleeve right on the face.

            "You know that's petty right?" James asked as Gus came back towards him.

            "This is an expensive suit." He answered. Gus knew no one would ever understand how seriously he took his wardrobe, car and phone and had long since come to accept that fact. "You did good man."

            "Yeah, you too." James agreed. "Thanks."

            A second later, Henry squeezed in the room and caught sight of James, "Shawn?" He asked.

            James gave him a small head shake. "Not yet."

            "Oh," Henry said a little dejected.

            "Look Henry, I appreciate you trusting me like you did. I know it wasn't easy for you. Could you do me one more favor?"

            Puzzled, Henry answered, "What?"

            "Don't mention to him what I told you about Yin alright?"

            Gus glared, "You told him about Yin? What else did you tell him? Shawn is going to kill you!"

            "Dude, what was I supposed to do!? You were kidnapped and I had to convince him somehow to−"

            Before any more argument could be had, the men went silent as Juliet stepped into the room. Her eyes focused on each one of them, demanding answers for their odd behavior. "Shawn, _please_ tell me what the heck just happened. I know you're behind a lot of this."

            Gus tensed as approached Juliet, wondering if he was going to tell her what actually happened or not. He personally felt that should be Shawn's duty when he got back.

            "Jules, I'm sorry. I know it's been weird the past couple days, but I really want you to know that I trust you. More than anyone." Gus tsked. "Except maybe Gus... but you understand that right?" Juliet smiled, indicating she did understand. "I'll tell you all about it soon. Okay?"

            She sighed sadly, upset at being left out of the loop again, "Okay Shawn."

            Juliet started to turn away, but James stopped her, "Jules, I also know I don't say it enough, but I love you. A lot."

            The smile came back to her face and she gripped his hand in hers. "I love you too Shawn." She moved in to kiss him and Gus saw that James had reached his other hand out behind him as if grasping for something.

            Acting quickly, before James could kiss Juliet, Gus complied and stuffed the necklace into the actor's grasp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hate me for ending it there. It will be worth it, I promise. ;)


	13. Acting Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shawn and James get some unexpected company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me a lot of writing, rewriting and scrapping to get this one right. I had so many ideas that didn't pan out no matter how much I wanted them to but I'll tell you about those at the end. ;)
> 
> Thank you to everyone who reviewed and praised this story. It has been a fun eight months writing this!
> 
> ~Redwolffclaw~

The instant Shawn snatched the necklace from the air, it was almost like the breath was sucked from his lungs and he felt like he was spinning very fast even though his feet never left solid ground. When he finally got his bearings he realized he was still standing in the interrogation room.

Sucking in a gasp of desperately needed air, he heard himself say in a breathless voice, "What the hell was that?"

The problem was, he hadn't spoken.

 _Oh, what the heck now?_ Almost afraid to look, Shawn spun around the _almost_ empty interrogation room and saw someone with very familiar clothes and hair getting up from the ground. He really hoped he didn't have the same look on the other man's face when he finally caught sight of Shawn, but he probably did.

"Shawn?"

"James?"

" **What are _you_ doing here?"** They both exclaimed at the same time.

            The following silence was awkward at best, as neither of them really knew how they'd gotten there. Shawn took the moment to case James. He'd really only seen the actor when he was in character, as himself. The way he was holding his limbs close meant he was either reserved or shy, which was hard to imagine from someone who'd played _him_ for so long. James also seemed to be taking things in too.

            "What the hell happened? Aren't we supposed to be like, zapped home?" James asked warily.

            Shawn frowned, "Like I'm supposed to know that. _You_ should know. Aren't you the one who's all schooled in making people's lives as miserable as possible?"

            James looked at him quizzically for a moment before realization hit him. "Oh."

            "Yeeeaah, I heard. The worst days of my life were all your fault. Thanks for that." Shawn didn’t wait to see how James reacted, he looked around the room and his eyes settled on the two way mirror. He cocked his head and moved closer.

            “What are you doing?” James interrupted.

            “Shhhhh!” Shawn put a finger to his lips before pointing it to the mirror. “I think we’re being watched.”

            James blinked, "You can actually do that?" Shawn ignored him and studied the mirror. "Who do you suppose it is?"

            "Maybe an alien." Shawn replied sarcastically before feeling a stinging pain on his earlobe. "OW! You flicked my ear!"

            "Serves you right. There's no such thing as−AH! My arm!"

            Breaking apart and keeping his distance from the actor, and his ear flicking, Shawn turned back to the mirror. He specifically saw a silhouette but whoever was in there, was just being creepy and watchy at the moment. "Okay! Jokes over! Come out or I'll send _him_ in there to get you."

            "Hey!"

            Despite his bravado, and James' protest, no one came from the door and the shadow behind the glass didn't move. "Man! Why does all the weird stuff have to happen to me."

            "C'mon. If I knew you were real, I wouldn't have done some of that stuff. Besides, you know it wasn't all me by now, so don't try to lay on the guilt trip. I know your tricks."

            Shawn grumbled, “I’ve been hearing that a lot lately.” It was probably true. The dude had been _him_ for years.

"Fine, truce until we figure out how to get out of here." James extended his hand as a piece offering and smiled. It was eerily like his own.

            "You know that's right."

While he went to go try the door, Shawn heard James ask, "How is everyone?"

            "Besides worried about you. Fine. Your girl misses you, your best friends and the really tall director dude miss you. Ya know, the usual."

            Shawn heard an amused snort, "Who ended up helping you? Dulé?"

            "Tim." Shawn stated as he tried the door and realized it was locked. _And me without my lock picks._

            "HA!" Shawn glanced behind him at the laugh, "That must have thrown you for a loop. He's hardly anything like Carlton isn't he?" The smile on James' face brought him no peace of mind and he frowned, thinking of his own side of things. "You have help there too?"

            "Gus, and your dad." _Figures..._ "They miss you too."

            Shawn turned from his yanking on the door handle. "Gus I can believe, but my dad? You must not know me as well as you think. I played that scripted scene on your side so I could blend in. There was a lot of yelling and blaming going on. Same all same all."

            James rolled his eyes. "You know it's same old same old."

            _" **I've heard it both ways.** "_ They both said, and Shawn didn't know why but that caused him to grin.

            "Seriously though, he was probably happy for the break." Shawn turned away so James couldn't see how much that thought hurt. The scene with his dad's double actually felt normal, but it still stung that his father might think that he was responsible for getting someone he cared about kidnapped.

            "Hey man, you may have done the scene with Corbin, but I actually had to do it with the real thing. It wasn't pretty, but I did get him to believe me eventually. He's really worried about you. Even distracted Lassie to buy us time with Greg and get him switched back." James moved into his field of vision.

            Shawn snorted, "How did you manage that. Go three minutes without making fun of his shirts?" In the few episodes he'd watched he realized that he insulted his dad's wardrobe more than he thought he did. Looking really uncomfortable all of a sudden, James started showing a lot of tells that screamed to Shawn that he was hiding something. "What did you do?!"

            "I kinda... toldhimhowyoureallyfeltaboutYin."

            Rather than asking the obviously troubled actor to repeat what he said, Shawn just played it back himself and his heart sank. James had spilled one of his darkest secrets to _his dad_ of all people. Jules was one thing. He'd tell her eventually, when she got over her own ordeal. Which would probably be in a few decades, but telling his dad is just opening him up for lectures about _safeness_ and other feelings that Spencers just didn't... feel.

            Shawn's eyes hardened and he deadpanned, "You...sonofa bitch."

\-------------------------------------

            James swallowed hard and backed up slightly. He'd only portrayed that kind of anger on Shawn when he was seriously pissed at someone. Usually right before he punched them in the nose. He managed to get to the other side of the table and he had to dodge a couple times when Shawn tried to get at him from across the table. Fortunately for him, it didn't seem like Shawn was _all_ that mad, because he hadn't gotten past the slapping stage.

            “You’re only hurting yourself!” James hollered.

            “You had _no right!_ ”

            Once again dodging an open palm coming his way, James shouted, "Hey! It was the only way I could get him to believe me! I'm sure you did some stuff to get them to believe you!" The thought struck him and he remembered all the warnings he got from Gus about needing to be afraid of what Shawn might do. "What about you!? What did you do to get them to believe _you_?"

            "Uh..." All the anger seemed to drain out of Shawn's face. "Nothing."

            _Right. Nothing._ James pinched the bridge of his nose. This was getting them nowhere. "Okay, let's agree to disagree that we had to do some stuff to get back home−" James stopped. Technically they weren't back home yet. They were locked in an interrogation room, and he'd almost forgotten that they had an audience behind the glass. Besides being super creepy, it was puzzling. What were they waiting for? Why were they doing this?

            "Fine, but your scripts are about to get a lot more boring when my dad tries to forbid me from being a detective." Shawn's scowl was back.

            "He cares about you a lot more than you know _and_ he's proud. Trust me on that." He saw Shawn's eye roll and James gave up for now, knowing that was something he'd have to realize for himself, or at least admit to himself eventually. A thought struck James. He knew that deep down Shawn's self-esteem wasn't all that good, and he needed to hear something. "Carlton respects you too you know. It's just hard for him to say it."

            "You tell _him_ that next time he tries to prove I'm a fake and ruins my life."

            James smirked, "I think you'll be surprised." He kinda knew what Steve had planned for that, and it was going to be pretty touching.

            Shawn's gaze finally met his own for the first time since his anger dissipated. "Your friends are worried about you ya know. When they still didn't believe me, all I heard was that I was stressed and needed some rest. Timmy thought that I was having a mental breakdown."

            _I do push myself hard._ James admitted to himself. It was actually kind of nice to give the reigns over to Gus for a while. In the instance of figuring out who a murderer was, he had to put his inner control freak on a leash and go with the flow. "I get it. I need to back off the intensity a bit." He thought of Maggie, and how supportive she was of him, even when he got pretty involved in his work. She had often said he needed to relax more too.

            "Good. I was only you for a day or so and I felt like I was going to blow a blood vessel."

            James socked him in the arm, but not hard. "Thanks for figuring things out on your end by the way. Even if we aren't home yet, it was still pretty sweet that it worked."

            "You didn't do half bad yourself. From actor to action hero right?" Shawn teased.

            "Oh yeah, by the way, tread lightly around Gus for a while. He knows what you did and why you did it, but I'd expect some cheese wiz in your file drawer within the next couple days."

            Shawn nodded thoughtfully, most likely planning his own drawer revenge for Gus’ drawer revenge. "Dually noted. And just so you know too, anyone who says anything about someone kissing your girlfriend, it's all a total lie."

            "What!?" _He_ kissed _Maggie?_ He was about to start his own version of "Ring Around the Table," but with fists, before he took a deep breath and tried to be the mature one. _Besides, he'll be in for his own surprise when he gets back._

            Brushing off James' exclamation, Shawn scowled at the mirror once more before getting down to business. "Now what do you say we try to get the hell out of here and away from Creepy McCreeper in there.”

            With a smirk James headed to the door, "You read my mind. It's like we're the same person." This finally got a real laugh from Shawn. Once they reached the door, they each took up a stance, grabbing the door knob.

            Getting a good grip, James said, "Okay, on three." Shawn opened his mouth and James instinctually stopped him with a finger. "And _yes_ you can count."

            Shawn grinned and started, "Okaaay... one... two... th−"

\---------------------------------------

            **PSYCH:**

Gus didn't know why, but he expected a flash of light, an explosion, some sort of sign that what they had done worked. All that happened was that someone, who could still be James, was suddenly kissing Juliet. Albeit, the person looked incredibly surprised for a moment, before really getting into it, wrapping his arms around her tightly.

            His blood pressure spiked and he was just about to intervene when the person pulled back and took a gasping breath. "Well, I wasn't expecting that."

            Scowling, Gus grumbled, "Well I should hope n− wait..." He had a feeling, and he just had to ask before he kicked James' ass. "Shawn?" His best friend's smile was all the answer he needed. Shawn was back. It had worked.

            Gus grabbed Shawn in a crushing grip that caused the fake psychic to gasp in pain. "Too tight buddy!" He stepped back sheepishly, remembering that Juliet had no idea what had really been going on. Shawn smiled for a moment before realization suddenly came to him. "Dude... did he totally try to kiss her?! I knew I should have tried harder to kick his ass."

            "Wait, what?" _Kick his ass?_ Gus thought confused, but apparently Shawn had caught on as to why his welcome back was so interesting, but he didn't know the reasoning behind it. James was just trying to be nice, admitting to Juliet what Shawn himself had trouble with.

            So when Juliet asked Shawn, "Kicked who's ass? Shawn, should I be worried about an assault charge?" Gus shot Shawn an almost imperceptible head shake. He'd have to talk to him later about it.

            "Nooo..." Shawn crooned as he set the necklace down on the interrogation room table. "I was just remembering something about Stern." He tried to cover for himself.           

            It wasn't one of Shawn's best recoveries, but it seemed to do the trick. However, the mood that James had set up before leaving was quickly draining away and Gus felt like he had to do something to save the moment. "Shawn, weren't you just telling Juliet how much she means to you, and how much you love her?" He widened his eyes and raised his eyebrows as far as he could.

            "Oh yeah! Jules I−" This time the moment was interrupted by the chief walking in and catching her detective and consultant practically melded to each other.

            "O'Hara! What are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be documenting your latest collar?" Gus could see both disapproval, and amusement in Karen's features. He always wondered how she was able to keep things so professional when she obviously cared about each of them deeply.

            Juliet broke away quickly, still giving Shawn a quick smile. "Sorry Chief. I'll get right on it. _We'll talk later Shawn._ " She whispered before hurrying out of the room, red faced.

            Karen's gaze ended up on Shawn and Gus, "And you two..." Both of them winced away, expecting a verbal thrashing for going against protocol and interrogating a suspect without permission. "good job."

            Shawn and Gus gave each other a grin, and Gus didn't notice that Karen had gone to the table to pick up the necklace until he heard her say, "Isn't this supposed to be in evidence?"

            " **Chief NO!** " They both shouted as she reached for the cursed necklace and she flinched back. Shawn rushed forward, now immune to the necklace's power he grabbed it. "Don't you worry your little head over this. We'll make sure we'll get it back to evidence."

            Giving them a bewildered look, she said "Alright, just make sure you don't get lost on the way. I'll have your check for you when you get back."

            Gus nodded and grinned as Shawn waved at her retreating form. As soon as she was out of ear shot, Gus asked warily, "You're not really going to turn that into evidence are you?"

            "Not a chance in hell."

           "Good." Gus then quickly flicked Shawn as hard as he could in the nipple.

            Shawn almost bent over in pain. "OW! What was that for?"

            "That was for ruining one of my suits and giving me the worst morning of my entire life. You owe me a new outfit Shawn!"

            Rubbing his chest, Shawn nodded. "God, fine! That was just too hard man!"

            "Suck it Shawn." Gus grumbled angrily as he and his sloshing dress shoes stormed up to the bull pen so he could get paid. He was really happy Shawn was back, but his pride had been damaged a lot more than his clothes were and he was going to have to come up with something fitting to get him back before his anger was sated.

            "Hey!" Gus heard someone shout, and it ended up being Woody. "Is Shawn down there? I really want to see if he'd let me know more about this..." He leaned in closer, " _evil_ _twin business._ "

            Snorting in amusement, and figuring that this may just be enough of a revenge to get Shawn off the hook, he pointed over his shoulder. "He's right down there. Oh, and make sure to tell him all about your theories on it."

            As the coroner nodded gleefully and scampered down the hallway, Gus smiled widely and continued up the stairs. _Yep,_ now _we're even._

\-------------------------------

            **REAL:**

Tim saw Shawn expertly snatch the necklace out of the air. For a moment the man studied the necklace before looking around. Once he'd spotted the cameras he let out a loud whoop and slammed the jewelry down on the table. "YES! It worked! WOO!"

            The crew's eyes widened as he jumped around the room and grabbed Maggie in a kiss. Tim noticed she didn't pull away, and with the reaction he'd just witnessed, he deduced that James was back. He grinned and ignored the puzzled looks as he whispered a subtle. "Welcome back."

            James turned to him with a sly expression. "I just had the weirdest dream, you were there..." He pointed at Tim, "and _you_ were there." He squeezed Maggie tighter.

            She grabbed him and gave him a big hug back. "I missed you."

            "Oh, I'm so sorry I've been stressed lately sweetie."

            Tim saw Steve and half the crew blush before the large man announced, "Alright guys, that's it for today." He swooped in and started to shoo everyone away from the touching scene. He also pulled Greg aside and began speaking to him as he walked away, giving the people in the room some privacy to talk.

            Dulé seemed like he wanted to stay back and looked just as confused as everyone else, but he seemed to know there was something more going on as well. He'd been witness to a few of the stranger events the last couple days and Tim knew that he'd eventually find out what really happened.

            Sure enough James put a hand on his shoulder and explained, "We need a second okay? I'll let you know what's going on later."

            Shrugging, Dulé said smoothly, "It's cool, I'm going to go see if Jimmy's still around. I saw him earlier and he still owes me fifteen bucks. He bet against the 49ers last week."

            He grinned widely and left with James calling after him, "The Titans are gonna smoke them this year!"

            "Suck it James!"

            Tim hid a laugh with a cough while James glared at him with a frown.

            Maggie stepped in, bringing things back to the topic at hand, "James, what happened? Are you okay? Did Stern get arrested?"

            Grinning again, James nodded. "You guys did great. Shawn told me you all worked to get the bastard back here he belongs."

            " _Shawn_ told you?" Tim exclaimed. Greg hadn't said anything about getting to meet Stern. Not that he'd really want to meet the man who almost ruined his life.

            A weird look came to James' eyes, "It was pretty creepy. We were still in the interrogation room, and someone was watching us. I never saw who it was..." Tim could tell that it must have shaken him because James went quiet.

            "So let me guess," He smirked trying to lighten the mood again. "Shawn told you to go easy on him and make sure they name a restaurant in his honor?"

            Maggie giggled as well but with an amused smile, James shook his head. "We actually didn't talk about it."

            Tim's brow furrowed. James had the once in a lifetime opportunity to chat with Shawn Spencer, and the fake psychic hadn't begged for some leeway? He found that really hard to believe. "Why not?"

            "I don't think we had to." James replied with a thoughtful expression. "From what I got from this, we both influence each other, right? So we'll never really know what could be us or what could be the other person. I guess besides knowing that Psych's world actually exists...nothing really changes."

            Tim could understand that, so many times he didn't know if things were going right on the other end. There was absolutely no telling if James was ever going to come back or not, they'd just really hoped he would. Apparently Maggie understood too and gripped his hand tighter, as if she was afraid he'd pop back out at any moment.

            "I wonder what it would be like to meet Lassiter. I bet he'd shit a brick if he ever saw me with my beard." He already knew what Lassiter would say, but it would almost be interesting to hear him go off about how he would never look like a homeless hippy.

            That caused some well needed laughter from the group.

            "What are you going to do with the necklace James?" Maggie asked.

            "Mmmm... I thought I would hand it to the next person that walks by and wish them luck." She promptly smacked him on the chest. "I honestly don't know. Probably put it in a safety deposit box or something. People could really do some damage with it."

            Tim could only imagine. He saw how much trouble a low life with homicidal tendencies caused. Imagine if someone truly dangerous, someone like Yin, got a hold of it and learned how to use it. He shuddered.

            Once Tim broke away from his thoughts, he realized James was talking to him. "Thanks man, for helping him out. He seemed pretty shaken up about the whole thing."

            "Look who's talking. And don't thank me yet, you at least owe me a drink for this one."

            "How about dinner at Joey's?" James bargained. "My treat."

            "You're on, and then you can tell us what happened on your end."

            With dinner plans made, they were just about to start out of the small set, when Kurt Fuller strode in looking exhausted, but in character. His trademark white coat rested over a blue suit and a pineapple laden tie. He had apparently just returned from the business trip he'd taken the day before, and hit the dressing room for his scenes.

            "Hey! What's up guys? Michelle said you were in here." He squeezed past them in the small space and leaned against the table almost wearily. "How many scenes we got left today?" His eyes fell on the stain on Tim's own suit and smirked, knowing where it probably came from.

            Nobody there could blame him for thinking they were still going to keep shooting. It was usually night when they did the inside shots, but with everything that happened, everyone was ready to relax and go home. "Sorry Kurt, I think we're done for the day. You look like you could use some rest too."

            Kurt sighed, obviously disappointed he got dressed up for nothing. "Alright, I'll just go get changed again."

            James smacked him on the back good naturedly. "We'll wait up for you okay?"

            That brought a smile to the older man’s face. "Great!" As he pushed himself away from the table, Kurt noticed the necklace, still sitting where James had set it. "Wow, this is a beaut, is that a prop?"

            Before anyone could stop him, Kurt picked it up. Everyone held their breath for a moment, but nothing seemed to happen. Tim chastised himself, as the other's expressions relaxed as well. Honestly, what were the chances of Woody picking it up on the other side? Besides, he doubted Shawn would ever let anyone go near that necklace now that he knew what it did.

            "I've never seen anything like this? What kind of stone is it?" Kurt asked.

            "Sunstone." James specified. He still seemed nervous, and extended his hand to take it back as quick as possible. Just in case.

            Kurt handed the gem over without a fuss. "Well, I better be off guys. No rest for the wicked, especially twin ones right?" He nudged James with an elbow and turned around to leave, missing the knitted brows his comment earned him.

            Tim saw Kurt freeze instantly as he faced the missing wall, where the cameras still sat, and he turned back to them with a puzzled expression. "Look, the sandwich I had for supper tasted a bit funny, so could any of you tell me if I've been drugged or is the interrogation room wall is really missing?"

            "What?" James' voice cracked as he struggled to come to grips that the impossible must have actually happened. "Woody?"

            While the others gaped in stunned horror, Tim noticed some green droplets on the usually pristine white coat. Droplets that matched the stain on his own clothes, almost like he got caught in a splash back. Those weren't there before, because Kurt hadn't been there when it happened. Woodrow Strode however...

            "Yeah, and come to think of it... didn't you go down to the cells detectives?" He asked looking at Tim and Maggie as if they'd grown two heads, or more specifically, appeared out of nowhere.

            Tim rubbed his face wearily as the coroner continued to babble nervously. It looked like this was going to be a _really_ long night after all. He looked at James and Maggie to ask, "So, do we draw straws to see who is going to switch them back?"

           

%MCEPASTEBIN%

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone liked it even though I kept the person behind everything ambiguous. I didn't want Shawn nor James to forget what they'd been through, and I didn't want them freaking out, because they would... so I kept it mysterious.
> 
> I was ORIGINALLY going to have the person in there come out and be Steve Frank's double, which is how he knows so much about the world Psych is in, but I didn't want a whole Deus Ex Machina thing or whatever. Would have been just too over the top. The magic necklace thing was enough.


End file.
